From the Ashes
by Zorra del Cielo
Summary: Prom is approaching.  Monkeys are attacking.  And something very strange is going on. (Complete!)
1. Introduction

**From the Ashes**

I would like to thank everybody who has reviewed this story as it has been in progress. I am grateful, as well, for all the editing mistakes people have pointed out to me! You guys are just wonderful!

Sorry it has taken so long to finish, but I hope the story is worth the wait. I have revamped the structure so that each chapter is longer (the equivalent of 2 chapters) so you won't have to change pages so much.

Dedicated to, and in memory of, Secret, who, though she could never quite reach Rufus' level of intelligence, had to have been the smartest hamster in the world.

Disclaimer: Ok. Here's the sitch. I don't own the characters, I don't own the locations, I don't own anything!! (Well, except this particular story). Kim Possible and all things connected to her are owned by the magnificent creators, wonderful writers, and benevolent Disney Corporation who are magnanimous and understand that we poor fanfic writers are only practicing the sincerest form of flattery (imitation) when we write our stories about their characters and really have nothing to gain except the deepest pleasure of these fine owners' creations. (Long story short, PLEASE don't sue me! I have nothing, NOTHING!) 


	2. Of Monkeys and Mayhem

It was a dark and stormy night. Perfect for any number of horror story settings, but in this case, it was simply a spring thundershower in Middleton and the most horrific thing going on was that Jim and Tim Possible had stolen their older sister's Kimmunicator and she was about to kill them.

"Tweebs! You are SO going to die!" The altercation took them all over the house, from Kim's room, down the stairs, over the couch, behind the TV, under the kitchen table, back into the living room, and finally out the door where all three ended up in a heap on the ground as they stumbled over on unusual object in their path.

"Whoa, watch where you're going, kay?" Kim looked up from the tangle to see Josh Mankey pulling his foot out from under Jim and Tim. A hot blush spread up her face as she realized how undignified she looked, sprawled on top, underneath, and between her two brothers.

"Ummm, hey Josh." She managed to untangle herself and snatched her Kimmunicator from Jim. After giving both of the younger boys menacing glares that promised retribution, Kim turned back to her sometimes boyfriend with a small smile and nervous laugh. "So, what's up?" Josh, as cool as ever, smiled at her, his hands in his pants pockets.

"Oh, y'know, not much." Kim nodded at his answer, feeling incredibly stupid at how awkward she always got around this boy. She may be pretty, smart, and popular, but Josh Mankey was THE ideal high-schooler, and everyone in Middleton high knew it. Except for Ron a tiny voice inside her prodded, but she brushed the thought aside, knowing Ron also thought that monkeys were evil and nachos were the ambrosia of the gods.

"You wanna come in?" She asked, realizing that they were still standing out in the rain. He gave an elegant shrug, a very European action, to be sure, for a teenage American, but attractive nonetheless.

"Sure." The Tweebs had settled down again, watching their favorite station, TV Trash Heap, and Kim smiled at the "Fearless Ferret" episode, remembering Ron's belief that the super hero was real and that he could take over the role. Kim led Josh into the kitchen and had him sit at the table while she peered into the cupboards.

"Can I get you anything? We have hot cocoa, and popcorn, and, um, macaroni and cheese..." She broke off her monologue, thankful that she no longer had to worry about disappearing when she blushed, or else she would be long gone by now.

"Whatever." That was one thing Kim usually liked about Josh, he was so quiet. Unlike Ron, who never seemed to shut up. Of course, sometimes chatter was a good thing, and she turned to throw two mugs of milk into the microwave to cover the silence as it grew longer. Josh sat tapping his fingers on the table top as Kim mixed the hot chocolate and finally sat down at the table with him.

"So... what brings you here?" she asked finally. Josh looked up, seemingly startled a bit, but he covered it quickly with another of his to-die-for smiles.

"Well, actually, I was just out walking and thinking about..." whatever he was about to say was cut off as the door to the kitchen burst open.

"KIM!" Ronald Stoppable, better known to everyone as Ron, slammed the door behind him, panting hard and looking like the four horsemen of the apocalypse were after him. "They're after me!" Kim rolled her eyes a little and shrugged a quick apology to Josh. She sighed.

"Who's after you, Ron?" He opened his mouth to answer, when he caught sight of Josh sitting at the table by Kim.

"What's HE doing here?" Although Kim knew Ron didn't like Josh, the main reason being because his last name was too close to "monkey" for his comfort, she hadn't ever heard Ron speak to him with such suspicion and hostility before.

"Actually I just came to ask Kim if she wanted to go with me to the senior prom." Josh said easily. "I can see you're busy right now, though, so I think I'll just catch you later". He winked at Kim, whose eyes were wide with surprise, and headed out the door. "Call me" he threw back over his shoulder before disappearing into the night.

"Did you HEAR that?! He said he was going to CATCH me later! I'm doomed!" Ron cried out dramatically. A small pink rodent popped his head out of Ron's pants pocket and nodded vigorously.

"Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm! Doomed!" he squeaked in agreement.

"Ron! So not the drama, ok?! He was talking to me, and..."

"He's after YOU now?! Don't worry KP, I'll protect you!!" Kim shook her head and grabbed Ron by the front of his shirt.

"Ron! It's just a saying! And you'd better have a good reason for chasing him away like that because he was going to ASK ME TO THE PROM!!" Ron flinched away as each word Kim spoke rose in volume. She released him and he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry, Kim, but you see..." he was interrupted by the beeping of the Kimmunicator.

"Oh, this is just my night, isn't it?" Kim moaned, pulling out the device and activating it. "What's the sitch, Wade?" she asked, putting some false enthusiasm into her greeting.

"Kim, have you seen Ron lately?!" Wade asked, his voice uncharacteristically worried.

"Um, yeah. He's right here with me." Kim hoped she didn't look as puzzled as she felt. "Why?"

"Well you'll never guess who just broke out of prison... Monkey Fist!"

"Great. Well, I still don't see..."

"No, Kim, that's just it. For some reason he's targeted Ron. We got a hit on the site from Ron's mom saying..."

"Ron! Your MOM?! Come on, if she wanted to contact me she could just call" Kim eyed Ron strangely.

"Hey! I can't help it if my mom thinks she has to go through the official channels! Besides, I was TRYING to tell you..."

"Will you BOTH cut it out?!" Wade's voice came from farther away than they thought it should and Kim looked down, only to discover that she had dropped the Kimmunicator in her argument with Ron. The high-tech machine had sprouted wheels and was driving towards their living room. Kim and Ron hurried to catch up with it.

"HEY!" They heard two identical whines cut the air as the Kimmunicator hooked itself up to the television, cutting off the twins' program right when the Fearless Ferret was about to unmask that week's villain. The screen fuzzed a bit, then cleared as Wade's face appeared on the large screen.

"Now listen, you two, Ron's mom hit the site because the phone was out. A team of monkey ninjas hit Ron's house and trashed it, not more than twenty minutes ago!" Kim and Ron looked at each other, their squabble forgotten.

"Ron," Kim began, "um, what was it you were trying to tell me when you burst in here earlier?"

"Well it wasn't THAT!" he exclaimed, still reeling from the idea that had he left home only minutes later he would have run smack dab into a horde of, the horror, monkeys.

"But you said they were after you! If you weren't talking about monkey ninjas, what WERE you talking about?"

"Uh, hel-lo?! The entire cheer squad!" Kim looked at him in surprise.

"Why would the cheerleaders be after you?" Ron grinned at her.

"Well, you know, prom IS coming up..."

"And they decided not to wait until you asked them to beat you up this time?"

"Oooh, that was low, KP." To her credit, Kim blushed and looked away guiltily.

"Sorry, you know I just could resist..."

"Nah, it's ok. I learned my lesson last year. No the real reason was they weren't too happy with my new Mad Dog routine. See, I kinda ran into them when they were practicing their new formation, and they didn't appreciate plummeting to the ground. I don't know why... I mean I AM a bon-diggity dancer and..."

"Oh no! I completely forgot about practice!" Kim slapped her forehead.

"Well, you WERE a little busy rescuing the biology class's pet lobster from the ventilation system..."

"Hey you guys, can we get back to the current crisis here? Monkey Fist went through a lot of trouble to send his ninjas to trash Ron's house. Any ideas why?" Kim looked at Ron. Ron looked at Kim. They both looked back at Wade.

"Not a clue" "Nope, sorry" they responded at the same time. Then Ron cocked his head to the side and studied the television screen.

"Hey you're the super genius, why don't you tell us?" Wade grinned and typed something into his keyboard.

"Well I can't answer that question, but I do have some interesting footage from the prison when Monkey Fist escaped. Its pretty small, which is why I tapped into your TV, Kim."

"No problem, Wade, let's just see what Mister Monkey is up to."

The image on the screen faded from Wade's visage to the picture from a security camera at a prison. All it showed was four locked, barred doors, and a guard patrolling up and down the corridor. Suddenly a swarm of monkeys burst through the door at the far end of the enclosure. They were dressed in black outfits, with matching black masks, and quickly overpowered the guard with their ninja moves. From the opposite side of one of the closed doors, Monkey Fist's hairy face could be seen shouting out orders.

"That is just too freaky." Ron shuddered.

"Ron, I thought you were over the monkey thing...what about Chippy?"

"Well, YEAH, Chippy's cool, but those monkeys are still evil! And silent too!! That's just WRONG!" Kim sighed, and turned back to the footage.

"Ok, here's where things get weird" Wade informed them. On the screen the monkeys had managed to unlock Monkey Fist's cell and all of them were making their escape, when three of the six monkeys turned and attacked Monkey Fist. They tore at his hair, clawed his arms and legs, and though there was no volume on the tape, Kim could tell he was ordering them to cease... and having no success. The other three monkeys managed to hold the rogues off while Monkey Fist made his escape, but the battle left all six trapped within the prison, while Monkey Fist made his getaway alone. The footage cut out, and Wade appeared again.

"What just happened?" Ron asked the room at large.

"I don't know, but if Monkey Fist is losing control of his ninjas, something's definitely up. But what does that have to do with Ron, and what are we supposed to do about it?"

* * *

"Hey Kim." Kim jumped, nearly hitting her head on her locker door, and dropping her books.

"Josh, hi!" She smiled at him, her heart beating wildly. She pushed her hair back from her face nervously, and looked up and down the hallway, though she wasn't sure what she was looking for.

"So, we kinda got interrupted last night." He smiled down at her and she thought back to all the times she had ever laughed at the descriptions of knees going weak or melting when the perfect guy smiles at you and swore to herself never to underestimate dramatic writing again.

"Yeah, we did, umm... sorry about that..."

"S'ok. I was just wondering if you thought about what I said?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I mean Yes! I mean... of course I'll go to prom with you." He smiled at her again as the first bell rang. "See ya later." Kim nodded mutely and watched him walk away. When he was out of sight she fell back against the lockers and groaned.

"Well that was smooth." She turned to close her locker when Wade's face appeared on the screen set up inside.

"Hey Wade, what's the sitch?"

"You aren't going to believe this, KP, but I don't think it's Ron Monkey Fist is after!" Kim rolled her eyes and looked at Wade with as slight smirk.

"What part of that am I not supposed to believe, exactly?"

"What part of what aren't you supposed to believe?" Kim jumped again, this time she didn't manage to miss hitting her head.

"OW! Ron!!"

"Sorry. So what's up?" Kim rubbed the sore spot on her head as she looked to Wade. He wasn't paying any attention, though. His fingers danced across the keyboard and his eyes remained glued to the computer screen.

"Wade...Wa-ade... hey! Earth to Wade, what's going on?!" Wade jerked out of his computerized trance and glanced back at her.

"Sorry Kim, it's just...well...see for yourself." He again morphed his image into video footage. This time it was from a security camera at some kind of store.

"Heeeeyyy, all right, Smarty Mart!" Ron cried out and Rufus, not wanting to be left out, crawled up onto his shoulder and voiced his own opinion.

"Boo-ya!" The video showed Monkey Fist holding up the store with a group of monkeys. The monkey ninjas went to work breaking pottery and tearing clothes while Monkey Fist made his way towards the back of the store. The image jumped as another camera picked him up in the pets department. He looked in all the containers, and, when he didn't seem to find what he was looking for, he smashed some of the empty aquariums sitting on the shelves nearby. When he made to leave the store, though, again some of his monkey ninjas went wild, attacking him and the other, still loyal, monkeys. The footage cut out.

"So you said you don't think he's after Ron, so when he sent the monkeys to Ron's house, you think they were looking for....?"

"Rufus."

"WHAT?!" Kim and Ron burst out, and Rufus, not to be upstaged, enacted a dramatic faint that landed him right in Ron's shirt pocket.

"And when he didn't find him at Ron's house he went to Smart Mart to try and get his own naked mole rat." Kim shook her head at Wade's explanation.

"But, but...why? Why would a man obsessed with monkeys, a 'master' of the art of tai-shing pequa, who had himself genetically altered to be more like a monkey suddenly take up an interest in naked mole rats?"

"Who knows? You could ask him that yourself, though."

"You found his hideout?"

"Of course." Kim grabbed Ron by the back of his collar and dragged him along with her as she slammed the locker door shut. Lifting the Kimmunicator she peered down into Wade's face.

"So...where to?"

"I've pinpointed his location to just outside Middleton. He really must need something, though I don't know what, to risk meeting up with you!"

"Yeah, well, villains aren't always the sharpest pencil in the box, you know? How many times have they told me they're plan while leaving me to die and letting me escape? Sometimes I think they do it just to get the chance to fight me, you know, relieve the boredom." Kim skidded to a stop in the parking lot. After passing her driver's test she had begged her parents to get her a car, but they were old fashioned and told her that she could save her money and buy one. They thought that it would keep her off the roads for a few more years, but Kim had simply contacted some of the people she had helped over the years and found one who was willing to really "give her a ride". Dr. Freeman, inventor of Sadie, the self-driving, sentient car, used his blueprints to come up with a car for her that wasn't sentient, but had all the other goodies.

"Come on Ron, hurry up!" She shoved him towards the silver SUV with purple and green highlights.

"But KP! Don't you think that if Monkey Fist is after Rufus, it would be a bad idea to bring him what he wants?!" Kim slammed the door shut behind him.

"Fine, we'll drop off Rufus at your place on the way"

"Yeah, but he might send the monkeys after him again!"

"Then we'll drop him at my place and the Tweebs can take care of him."

"But..." Kim slammed on the brakes.

"Ron, what is up? You've never tried to back out of a mission before!" Ron looked down into his lap, a ruddy color spreading over his face.

"It's just, well, you know how I feel about monkeys, and yeah, Chippy's ok, but it's bad enough when you have a supervillain controlling fighting ninja monkeys, at least they have someone controlling them. But what if he's really lost it?! What if they go crazy and try to eat us? WHAT IF..."

"RON! Chill, so not the drama! If Monkey Fist can't control the monkeys, it's probably better for us! They won't attack us because he can't tell them too."

"Didn't stop the camp mascot." Ron mumbled. Kim sighed. Sometimes Ron was almost to Ronnish, even for her.

"KP, I think you shouldn't have any trouble with Monkey Fist."

"Why is that, Wade?"

"Because we just got a hit on the website... from Monkey Fist!

To be continued...


	3. Legend Has It

"Kim Possible. I must admit it is a sad day when I am brought this low. As rightful Lord of the Monkey Power I should be ruling the world! Not consorting with a pitiful..."

"I get the point Monkey Fist." Kim interrupted. She knew if she didn't he would go on for hours. They all did. Beside, his description of her wasn't exactly flattering. "What do you want?"

"Have you ever heard the legend of the phoenix, Kim Possible?"

"Ooh, ooh! I have!" Ron called out. They were all sitting around the Possible family dining table, but Ron refused to sit near Monkey Fist, so he was sitting on the opposite end of the table. Rufus was on the table in front of him, keeping a close eye on Monkey Fist. "That's the bird that burns up and then comes back to life, right?!"

"A crude way of putting it, but yes, essentially. The legend of the phoenix has many versions. Most versions tell us that the phoenix is a magical bird, unique among the animal kingdom, in fact unique in every way, as there could never be more than one phoenix alive at the same time. When a phoenix was ready to die, it would burst into flames and a new, more beautiful phoenix would rise from the ashes. The phoenix was a symbol to many ancient civilizations, from the Egyptians, to the Greeks, to the Chinese."

"Ah, this is where we get the connection, right? Ninjas are Chinese, and so is the phoenix!"

"You little idiot! The art of ninjitsu originated in ancient Japan, not China, and has nothing at all to do with the story of the phoenix!

"Well, maybe you could jump ahead to the part where this concerns us?" Kim cut in, wanting to avoid bloodshed and also wanting to distract Monkey Fist from his cruel taunting on Ron. Poor Ron. He looked so miserable at the other end of the table. Oh well, she'd make it up to him later, maybe treat him to some Bueno Nacho

"Very well. The phoenix has been a legend for thousands of years. But I believe I may have found evidence that this bird was not just a myth."

"O-k-ay," Kim said slowly, "Listen, I know you're into ancient artifacts and magic monkey powers, but I am still not seeing your interest in the phoenix. Birds and monkeys aren't exactly closely related on the evolutionary family tree."

"But that's where you're wrong!" Monkey Fist said with a fierce passion. "The phoenix of myth was a bird, much like a heron, or a swan, but I have stumbled onto the trail of an ancient creature, one whose wings shone with the fire of rubies and who was said to have burst into flames and resurrect itself from it's own ashes. But this phoenix was not just a bird... though it has the wings and tail and feet of legend, it's body and head were that of a..."

"Wait. Let me guess." Ron said in a bored monotone, "a monkey."

"Yes! A monkey!" Monkey Fist cried jubilantly. "I believe that this creature is where the monkey power truly originated from!"

"Let's say we believed your story, and, heck, lets say we even believed in this Monkey- Power-Phoenix nonsense. How does any of that involve us, and more importantly, why should we help you achieve what we've been fighting to keep you from for years?" Kim folded her arms across her chest and raised one eyebrow. Monkey Fist smiled evilly.

"It is simple. To save the world, of course."

"I beg your pardon?" Ron said dubiously.

"Yeah!" Rufus added.

"You see, I first discovered the evidence of the phoenix before you so rudely placed me back in prison last time. What I didn't realize was the truth behind the legends. I inadvertently set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the rebirth of the phoenix. But while I was in prison I managed to research my discovery and realized my fatal error. You see, the story tells of a bird, or a monkey, as I discovered, that lived for 500 years and then burned and was reborn. But the truth of the matter is, the phoenix is a spirit. And this particular phoenix was different from all its predecessors. You see this phoenix wasn't the good luck charm or connected to the sun god or any of the nonsense spouted in old stories. It was, in fact, a vengeful creature who had been locked away on the eve of its rebirth to prevent it from returning, once again, to its full power, for fear the new phoenix, too, would bring evil upon those who lived nearby. The reason the phoenix could burn and be reborn was that its flesh would be destroyed but its soul would remain and would be able to take possession of its next human victim as soon as the ashes had cooled. But I, in my ignorance, released it and it burst into flame before my eyes. Believing, as I did, that it would be reborn, I waited. But no new phoenix emerged. Instead, the spirit had attached itself to me like a leech, and I have carried it with me ever since."

"But this still doesn't explain what you want with Ron, or Rufus, or me... I mean, what do you want?

"The phoenix is sick. Because of its long imprisonment, it hasn't the strength to live for 500 years. Instead, it will probably only be a matter of weeks before it again burns and resurrects itself."

"Oh, I get it! You want us to help you get rid of it so you don't get burnt to a crisp!"

"You're still an idiot, but in this case you are partially correct. Of course, I know that isn't enough incentive for you to help me, but..."

"Actually, though you may be an evil villain, no one deserves to die like that. And heroes don't kill, even their enemies."

"Ahem. AS I WAS SAYING, there is more to this crisis. For the phoenix is angry and plans to destroy planet Earth and all life upon it as revenge for its intolerable imprisonment. Many of my own monkey ninjas have sensed the spirit of the phoenix and turned on me in an instinctual fight for survival. When the phoenix burns this time, it plans on taking the whole world with it." Kim considered for a minute, then turned to Ron.

"Keep an eye on him"

"What!? Me?! But..." his protests faded out of her hearing as she slid into the living room and pulled out her Kimmunicator.

"So what's the sitch, Wade; is he telling the truth?"

"As hard as it is to believe, I think he is. I've cross-referenced parts of his story with archaeological data and ancient myths and a lot of it checks out. I found reference to a phoenix gone bad early on, one of the very first phoenix stories out there. The story says that the people it was terrorizing tried to kill it by burning it. It, of course, was reborn, but the evil had gone out of it. Thus the burning and rebirth sequence was begun. Strangely enough, I've also found out about a recent archaeological find in Africa of a temple to a winged monkey with writings about the evils it had wrought on their tribes. The worst part, though, is what Monkey Fist says about burning the Earth with the phoenix. According to tectonic and meteorological scans, some strange stuff started going on with Earth's core around the time Monkey Fist claims to have released the phoenix. This is heavy stuff, Kim. I'm talking earthquakes where there haven't been fault lines before, previously dormant volcanoes starting to bubble in their caulderas again, and strange weather patterns all across the globe."

"Great. Just great. So, any ideas on how to stop it?"

"Right now, KP, the only thing I can suggest is to pray."

* * *

At a casual glance, it may have seemed like any normal kitchen. There was a stove, a microwave, a refrigerator, a kitchen table, and a large monkey-like man. Yes. That's where the kitchen differs from the average. There was also a blonde boy cowering in the corner, as the large monkey-like man taunted him with a smaller actual monkey dressed as a ninja.

"Ok, Ron, looks like...hey!" Kim's sentence was cut short as she walked in on the scene.

"KP!" Ron jumped up and managed to slide around Monkey Fist and slip behind Kim. She looked back at him, rolled her eyes, and then glared at Monkey Fist.

"All right, you two, cut it out! We are too short on time to be indulging in infantile behavior. It seems like you've actually been telling the truth, and if we're to have a truce, any kind of temporary alliance, then we need to work together, and fast. Monkey Fist, you broke into Ron's house and Smart Mart... why?"

"I needed his stupid little rodent." Monkey fist sniffed disdainfully.

"Rufus?! Hey, KP, check it out, Wade was right! Wait a minute... what do you want with him?" Ron's protective ire brought him out from behind Kim.

"I thought it would be easier than finding another one and training it." Kim and Ron exchanged confused looks. Monkey Fist sighed, annoyed.

"I don't know WHY I need the creature, I only know that the ancient temple where I unleashed the phoenix had hieroglyphics in the shape of naked mole rats. I was hoping that by acquiring one I could figure out how to rid myself of this curse on my own! But time is running out, and I am no closer to figuring out the solution than I was when I first began."

"Hmmm...naked mole rat hieroglyphs, in a hidden temple in Africa, where an evil phoenix spirit was trapped. You getting any connections Wade?" The boy on the screen thought for a moment, then began typing furiously.

"Kim, I've come across an ancient African legend that tells of an evil spirit being defeated by strange hairless beings from the sky, and..."

"Uh, Wade, mole rats live underground! The don't fly!" Ron cut in, peering over Kim's shoulder.

"I didn't say it was fact, I said it was a LEGEND! I don't know where the sky part comes from, but, hey, if we're accepting the existence of a magical, mythological, being, we might as well follow any leads!"

"Thanks, Wade." Kim said, distractedly. "I think the best thing would be for us to go to this old temple and see if we can't figure out a way to reverse Monkey Fist's mistake. Can you get us there?"

"I'm on it, KP." The image blanked out and Kim turned to look at Monkey Fist.

"You're going to have to lead us there. Are any of your monkeys still loyal to you? We may need all the help we can get!" She added quickly, for Ron was giving her an angry glare at the mention of monkeys.

"A few are, but I wouldn't count on them. Animals are very intuitive, you know, and if they haven't sensed the phoenix and turned on me by now, they probably aren't smart enough to be of any help to us." Kim nodded, thinking this new information over. She was about to say something else, when the doorbell rang. She hurried out to answer it, and had to hold back a groan when she opened the door to reveal Josh. 'Not now!' she thought desperately, but pasted a smile on her face, nonetheless.

"Josh! Hi, what a surprise!"

"Hey Kim." He stood there for a minute, and Kim mentally shook herself.

"Oh, um, would you like to come in?" he smiled at her and she felt her heart flutter. As she backed up to allow him room to pass, she happened to glance back and see that both Ron and Monkey Fist had followed her into the living room. She looked desperately between them and Josh, wishing she were anywhere but where she was at the moment.

"Ms. Possible, I really must insist that we avoid any more distractions. Time is of the essence, you know." Monkey Fist approached her and looked down at Josh in disdain.

"Hey, man, you look kinda like a monkey, you know?" Josh said lazily, looking over Monkey Fist in much the same arrogant manner.

"I don't just LOOK like a monkey! I am a monkey master! I am destined to harness the mystical Monkey Power and become the MONKEY KING!" Monkey Fist declared with typical overblown drama.

"Ok, ok! Chill out everyone. Josh, I'm sorry, but I'm a little busy right now, can I get back with you some time later?" Josh shrugged, seemingly indifferent.

"Sure, no prob." He winked at Kim, then added, "Hey monkey man, you know, that whole monkey-power-king thing sounds like an interesting story. If you ever want to take your tale to Hollywood, I could hook you up." He flipped a small business card towards Monkey fist, turned around, and walked off down the street.

"Hmmm, Joshua Mankey, son of director Robert Mankey." Monkey Fist read. "It has potential...and with a name like Mankey, well, it's so close to Monkey that... yes... I must say this Kim Possible. You may have the irritating habit of thwarting my plans, but at least you seem to have admirable taste in boys." Ron simply smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand.

"I TOLD you, KP. Mankey/ Monkey! He's seriously bad karma." Rufus stuck his head out of Ron's pocket and nodded in vigorous agreement.

"MMM-hmm, monkey- yeachk." Kim sighed.

"So not, Ron. Wade, PLEASE tell me you have something." The kimmunicator screen lit up with the image of her ten-year-old friend.

"No sweat! I found you a ride to the Swahili Coast of Africa, not too far from the hidden temple, and am hot on the trail of the phoenix/ mole rat connection." Kim smiled at the good news, but it faded again as she looked up to notice Ron and Monkey Fist squaring off once more.

"Great. Now if only you could develop a cure for infantile behavior." She looked down again, "Thanks anyway, Wade." He smiled and his picture disappeared.

"Ok people, looks like we're on our way to Africa."

To be continued...


	4. Shego and Spaceships?

Somewhere, in a dark, dirty, dank, disgusting...

"All right already! I get the point! Shego!" Dr. Drakken yelled for his assistant, not realizing that she had gone shopping. "Oooh, where is that girl?" He punched at a keyboard, frustrated. "Grrr. I should have known this wouldn't work!" He glared at the computer screen on which he had been reading statistics on Kim Possible. The data was extremely verbose, singing Kim's praises and basically informing Drakken that he had absolutely no chance of ever defeating her. Of course, Drakken didn't believe it, but he was tired of reading about Kim Possible's vaunted talents. He was hitting his head repeatedly against the computer monitor, when a door slid open in the back of the room, revealing a young woman with black hair, extremely pale skin, and a strange outfit of green and black.

"Let me guess, you hacked into my file on Kim Possible?" Shego asked with a bored air.

"Yes! And it hasn't told me ANYTHING helpful!" Drakken wailed. Shego smirked at him and dropped her two large shopping bags on a nearby chair. She sauntered over to the computer and reached behind Drakken, switching it off.

"Yeah, duh. That's because it's MY file on Kim Possible and you have no clue what to do with the information contained within it." Drakken glared at her, wishing, not for the first time, that he didn't need her help so much. He opened his mouth to retort, but he couldn't think of anything, so he ended up simply clenching his fists and letting out a wordless howl. Suddenly another computer started issuing insistent beeping noises.

"Ooh! She's on the move! Let's see if we can find a way to destroy her!" Shego rolled her eyes at Drakken's lameness and flopped down into a chair.

"I don't see why you don't just take over the world when she's off on another mission, instead of trying to destroy her."

"Be-CAUSE, Sheego, she has to be there to witness my triumph! After all the humiliation she's put us thorough..."

"Put YOU through." Sheego spat out, interrupting.

"Oh no you don't! She's defeated you too!"

"Yeah, but at least I gave it a good effort, and managed to come out on top a few times. You, on the other hand...well, let's just say that if Kim Possible happened upon you when I wasn't around, you wouldn't even get to the part where you cry out 'KIM POSSIBLE! How! Why?! Boo hoo hoo!' before you were defeated." Sheego smirked as she mocked her employer. Everyone knew she was the one with all the talent, and if Drakken didn't want to admit it, she could always take a vacation again, leaving him helpless.

"Ohhhh!" Drakken clenched his hands and stalked over to the computer. He typed in a few commands, looked up at the monitor, and typed some more. Suddenly an image appeared of a large ocean cruiser moving at top speed. On the deck were Kim Possible, her annoying buffoon of a sidekick... what WAS his name again? Drakken never could remember... and...

"What?! Sheego! Come look at this!" Sheego rolled her eyes and slowly uncurled from where she had been working on her nails. She opened her mouth, prepared to say something else disparaging against her employer, when she saw what was on the screen.

"Did I miss something? Since when have Kim Possible and Monkey Fist been such good buddies?" Not that they were really acting friendly. Kim and Ron sat in deck chairs, deep in conversation with the Kimmunicator between them, Ron throwing suspicious looks towards Monkey Fist every few minutes. Monkey Fist, for his part, sat meditating, while also eating a banana held in one of his feet.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out! This could be the opportunity we've been waiting for!"

"Um, how so?"

"Don't question me, Shego! My brilliance is far to...um..brilliant for you to understand!" He flounced out of the room, leaving Shego behind, rolling her eyes. Then she turned her attention back to the computer screen.

"So, Kimmie, what are you up to this time?

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, the cruiser hastened along its path towards Africa. A tall, dark man strode out on deck, and Kim looked up and smiled at him.

"Thanks for giving us a ride, Mister Tadison." He smiled back at her, shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, after you saved our estate from those rampaging wild frogs."

"Well, it was no..."

"With the laser shooting eyes and fire breathing abilities,"

"No, really, it was..."

"And the acid secreting pores."

"No big." Kim finished, a slight flush covering her face. Though she was used to the thanks and appreciation of the people she helped, it still sometimes unnerved her when they were intent on detailing every single thing she had ever helped with, and singing her praises because of them. After the man returned to the ship's cabin, Kim turned back to Ron, who was with the Kimmunicator.

"Ron... what are you doing?"

"Huh? Oh, I was accessing this web site that I know...I mean, have heard...I mean, uh, that I found somehow, not that I ever saw it before in my life." Kim rolled her eyes. "It's about weird things like UFO's and swamp monsters and government conspiracies and stuff."

"Ron, you don't seriously believe all that nonsense, do you?" It was Ron's turn to roll his eyes, something that he wished he had more opportunities to do.

"Uh, Kim? Let's review, shall we? We're on a boat, chasing down a mythical, magical bird, with a man who turned himself into a..." he shuddered, "monkey. We have, in the past, fought people with weather machines, killer robots, and any number of weird science-fiction-like gizmos. As for swamp monsters, need I remind you about Gill?! With two L's??" Kim sighed.

"He has a point, KP." Wade piped up from the Kimmunicator. "Ron, let me get a look at this website and see if maybe you're on to something." Ron grinned up at Kim. She smiled back, deciding to let him believe he was helping out with their dilemma. Poor guy always felt so incompetent, that she was willing to let him dream, if only for a little while. Mr. Tadison appeared once more from his stateroom.

"The captain says this is as close as we can get." Kim stood up, pulling Ron with her.

"Thanks again, Mr. Tadison." Turning to her backpack, she pulled out what looked like a small metal makeup compact. "Hey Wade, you sure this is going to work?"

"Sure, just press the green button to activate, use the Kimmunicator to steer, and hit the red button when you're ready to land." Kim shrugged.

"Ok." She pushed the green button and the compact immediately began transforming, expanding and growing until it was about the size of a speedboat. The center had opened, forming walls and a metal bench ran around the perimeter, allowing passengers to sit. Kim, Ron and Rufus, Monkey Fist, and his two remaining monkeys climbed into the vehicle. Kim fiddled with the Kimmunicator for a second, and with an almost silent hiss, the craft rose into the air and rocketed towards the African Savanna.

* * *

"Someone wanna tell me again why we're out here?" Ron Stoppable asked, looking around the barren Savanna while he mopped his forehead with a handkerchief.

"We have to go to the temple where Monkey Fist released the phoenix..."

"KP, it was a rhetorical question. It is SERIOUSLY hot out here! Am I right, my friend?" He looked down to where Rufus usually sat in his pocket, expecting him to agree with him as usual. To his surprise, the little rodent shook his head vigorously.

"Um-um, um-um! Nice!!" Ron rolled his eyes. Of course, naked mole rats were native to this area. He sighed.

"I just wish we could find some sha-AAADE!" His comment rose to a startled, and somewhat fearful, though he'd never admit it, cry as the ground gave way beneath him.

"Ron?" Kim turned to find her friend gone, and a gaping hole marring the ground where he had just stood. "RON!!" She rushed to the gap, terrified of what she may find.

"Owwww." She let out a sigh of relief as she heard his voice drift up from the blackness below.

"Ron, are you all right?"

"I think so..."

"Hold on, I'm going to come down and get you." She looked around, but spotted no trees or rocks close enough to tie a rope around. Instead, she carefully tested the ground around where the crust had caved in, trying to find a spot strong enough to hold her if she inserted the end of her grappling hook and rappelled down to Ron.

"Ok...any time now, KP!"

"Just hold on, Ron." She brushed away some of the topsoil, then sat back in confusion. "Wade, can you give me a reading on the ground here? Tell me if I'm imagining things." She didn't have to look at the Kimmunicator to know Wade was busily typing away.

"Nope, you're not imagining things, KP. My reading say that under the ground you are standing on is a massive metal structure..." typing could be heard for a minute, then, "and a LOT of electronics. Strange ones, too. I can't get completely conclusive readings on any of them!" Kim grimaced and stuffed the Kimmunicator back into her pocket.

"Thanks, Wade." She took out her grappling hook and fired it into the soil at her feet. There was a loud 'CLANG' and when she tugged back on it, testing her weight, it held fast. 'I'm on my way, Ron." She took a few steps back over the edge of the chasm, then hesitated. "You first, Monkey Fist. I'm not about to leave you up here while I rappel my way into the hole, just for you to cut the rope. I'm not stupid. For all I know, this could all have been a clever ruse to get rid of me." He had been smirking at her before she spoke, but, at her words, he scowled.

"It's no ruse. As much as I loathe you, you are my best chance of surviving this creature's wrath." He took the rope in his hands, and feet, and nimbly swung down into the pit. Kim pressed a button on her belt, which activated two flashlights attached to her costume, one on her wrist, the other expanding from her backpack to circle her head. Taking a deep breath, she hopped backwards into the darkness.

"Uuhmph!"

"Ow! Hey!"

"Well you shouldn't have been in my way!" Kim landed nimbly on her feet, and gave a look that promised retribution at Ron and Monkey Fist who were trying to untangle themselves, the rope, and one of Monkey Fist's monkeys, all the while squabbling like ten-year-olds. An image of Wade and then the tweebs rose in her mind.

"No, I take it back," she answered herself out loud, "ten-year-olds are MUCH more mature. Even the tweebs." she muttered under her breath. Rufus scurried out of Ron's pocket and swiftly chewed through the ropes and setting everyone free.

"Thanks, buddy" Ron said, scrambling to his feet. Monkey Fist had a little more trouble, as one of his feet was still tangled up in the rope. He tugged at it ineffectively, then glared at Rufus.

"What are you waiting for, help me out!" Rufus blew a raspberry at him and climbed up Ron's pants and into his pocket.

"Hmm, I guess it's true what they say," Kim said thoughtfully, a smile twitching at the corner of her mouth, "what goes around really DOES come around. Think about it next time you try to pry a computer chip out of a poor, defenseless, rodent." Ron looked back and forth between them, confused, but, since he didn't like Monkey Fist, and Rufus usually followed his example, he didn't see the need to ask questions. Those would just serve to turn attention back to him and then HE'D probably end up being the one to have to free Monkey Fist. Kim Rolled her eyes and sighed, reaching out with a small pocket knife and freeing Monkey Fist.

"Ok, can we get back to the subject at hand, here, people?"

"I am not people, I am a..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, a monkey. Wash, rinse, repeat." Ron said sarcastically. Rufus nodded vigorously. Kim had begun shining her flashlights around the hole, and tossed a bag to Ron.

"Here, Wade sent these for you." Ron opened the bag and withdrew a wrist flashlight like Kim's and a tiny miner's cap with a light on it for Rufus. As he geared them both up, Kim examined the walls.

"Hmmm, I think we may have a problem." The pit walls were some sort of metal, seamless, and, while Kim knew they could climb back up on her rope, there was the chance that the grappling hook wouldn't remain embedded if all of them put their weights on it. She pulled out the pocketknife again and experimentally scratched at the metal. After a minute she stopped and peered down at the area she had worked on. There wasn't a single mark on it. She pushed a button on the knife and the blade withdrew into the handle as a laser beam shot out. Again she cut at the wall; again the wall resisted any marks. She frowned at it, deciding that the rope would have to do, after all, when the Kimmunicator rang out.

"Wade, what's the sitch?" The younger boy grinned back at her.

"Kim, you'll never guess what my scans of your area have come up with! You know that large metal mass under the ground? I digitally deconstructed it and analyzed the size, electronics, and shape of it. And guess what? I think it's a spaceship!

To be continued...


	5. African Encounter

"A spaceship? Wade, you've been drinking shlushies before bed again, haven't you?"

"No, really! You are standing in what appears to be some sort of engine for a rather small flying saucer!" Ron looked around, nodding his head.

"You know, KP, I TOLD you that website was telling the truth! See! Proof that we are not alone in the universe!" He waved his hand in front of him as if picturing the great expanse of space and all the possible civilizations. Kim rolled her eyes.

"Rii-iight. Wade, if we're in an engine, where are all the mechanical parts?"

"This isn't an engine like a car's, Kim. It seems to be highly sophisticated technology that is powered by solar energy and some kind of hydrolyzed plasma. If the ship were activated, the hole you're standing in would fill with super-heated energy that could drive the craft at nearly light-speed!"

"Ok, so let's make sure we DON'T activate the ship." She peered up at the opening to the world above. "Any ideas on how we're going to get out of here?"

"Well, you could use the compact I gave you, remember?" Wade looked at her, annoyed.

"Oh, right!" As she pulled it out and activated it, Rufus jumped down from Ron's shoulder and scurried over to the far end of the room. He sniffed the wall, then stood up and pushed on it. A tiny opening appeared next to him, and he ran through it.

"Rufus!" Ron hurried towards the little door, but, as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. Kim pulled out the Kimmunicator again, the compact vehicle hovering above her head.

"Wade, Rufus just disappeared into the wall." Wade typed furiously, then an image of a spacecraft popped up on screen. The ship had five levels, with an obvious bridge, halls lined with what seemed to be living quarters, a mess hall, infirmary, engineering area, and the engine in the very center. Two blinking dots were shown in the engine, while a third moved quickly along a corridor.

"Ok, see, you two are in the engine, and Rufus is inside the ship itself. It looks like he's going towards the bridge!"

"Well, can you get us in there with him?"

"No can do, KP. The ship's corridors are much too small for a human. Rufus is the only one who can fit in them. Even Monkey Fist's monkeys would be too big." Ron and Kim looked over at Monkey Fist, who was leaning heavily against the wall, his face pale.

"Fine, we'll have to hope Rufus knows what he's doing. We have to get out of here and get the phoenix off of Monkey Fist." Kim leapt nimbly into the floating craft, Ron scrambled in, but Monkey Fist just struggled to lift his head.

"Um, Kim?"

"Yeah, Wade?"

"I think something Rufus did is about to activate the ship's engine... get OUT of there!!"

"Ron! Something's wrong with Monkey Fist! Get him in here!"

"Awwww, why does it always have to be me?" He leaned over and grabbed Monkey Fist by the ears. The walls began to glow an eerie red, and the two monkey ninjas scrambled up Monkey Fist's body, over Ron, and into the vehicle.

"Got him?" Kim asked. Ron grunted, and she took it as a yes. She pushed the disc's power up to full, and they shot out of the hole. As they landed about twenty feet away, the hole began to radiate heat and the red glow turned to a blinding yellow. As they watched, some sort of metal rose up, changing in shape and texture until it closed over the hole, leaving a glowing mound in the middle of the savanna. The ground began to rumble, then heave, as dirt and rocks cascaded from a rising heap. Ron looked at the pile fearfully, wondering what had become of Rufus.

"Wade, do we need to be farther back?" Kim asked nervously, backing away from the rumbling mound.

"I don't...I, uh...probab..." Kim grabbed Ron and Monkey Fist and pulled them along after her as the ground erupted in a spray of rocks and dirt. The pressure from the blast knocked all of them to the ground, covering them with debris. As the dust settled, Kim sat up, taking her arms down from protecting her head, and brushing herself off.

"Everyone ok?" She looked around. Monkey Fist sat up slowly and glowered at her, tiny pebbles sliding down his face from where they had come to rest in his matted hair. Ron was still lying on the ground where Kim had thrown him, covering his body with her own to protect him. Since she had taken the brunt of the blast, she didn't know how he had been hurt, and she leaned down to check for vital signs.

"Ron? RON?" She heaved a sigh of relief as he slowly moved into a sitting position, but he still didn't answer her. His face was turned down towards the ground, and his shoulders slumped dejectedly. When Kim tried to get him to look at her, he tore himself away and stumbled to his feet, swiping his eyes and looking out towards the horizon.

"Oh, Ron. I'm so sorry." Kim didn't know what to do. Rufus had been his pet, true, but also a brother, a son, a friend. Kim may have been Ron's best friend since preschool, but even she couldn't go everywhere and do everything with Ron; she had her own life. Rufus' life had been tied to Ron's in a way few people cold have understood. Kim put her arms around his shoulders, and this show of support crumbled Ron's few brave defenses. He threw his arms around her and cried openly.

"Uh, guys?" Wade's voice went unnoticed by the two mourners, but Monkey Fist gave them a disgusted look and reached over to pick of the Kimmunicator.

"I'm afraid they're a little....busy at the moment." He smirked a little and aimed the video feed at Kim and Ron. Wade saw their distress and his eyes opened wide. He started typing furiously, reading printouts.

"I'm sorry, guys, but no time for that now! You've got bigger problems!"

* * *

In the vast darkness that was space, time seemed as frozen as ice covering a comet. The brilliancy of the stars seemed to dwindle and dim, until nothing was left but a tiny speck, glowing in the distance. Just as those who nearly experience death would tell of a tunnel and the bright light at the end, so, too, would the consciousness floating so listlessly describe grief. The light hurt. The darkness seemed so comforting, but no matter how hard he tried, the light kept following him. It pierced him like a knife, cutting deep at his soul. Then it called his name.

"Ron! Come on, snap out of it! We have to GO!!" Kim Possible shook her best friend, trying to reach him, but his eyes stared vacantly at nothing in particular. In the sky above them, dark clouds were gathering, lightning plunging to the earth in violent eruptions. Monkey Fist had collapsed shortly after talking to Wade on the Kimmunicator, and Kim knew she couldn't drag TWO limp bodies to the shelter of a nearby rock formation. Rain began to pour, all at once, as if someone had turned on a fire hose full blast. It was cold, wet, and, if she wasn't mistaken, mixed with tiny hailstones and sleet.

"I'm sorry, Ron, but it's for your own good." She murmured, hauling back her fist and slugging him in the stomach. His body bent, retching, at the sudden pain, but when he lifted his head, his eyes were no longer empty.

"Ow." He coughed, still doubled over. "What was that for?" Kim hugged him tightly, then pulled him to his feet.

"Run! Go take shelter!" she had to shout to be heard over the roar of the storm, and she pointed to the outcropping of boulders. Ron nodded, still dazed, and stumbled towards them. Kim turned and grabbed Monkey Fist's ankles, dragging him after Ron. Before she had made it five feet, though, she felt something tug at her burden. Turning around, she didn't see anything for him to have snagged on, or any animal poised to attack. Yet she couldn't get him to move another inch. Suddenly he was torn from her hands and went flying into the air, stopping about fifteen feet in the air, and hanging like a motionless puppet on a string. As the lightning flashed, Kim could swear she saw the outline of wings beating in time to the howling of the wind. As she braced herself to leap at Monkey Fist dual beams of light so intense it put sunlight to shame shot out of his eyes and caught her in the chest.

"KIM!!!" Ron had been cowering under the shelter of the rocks, but he lurched out into the storm as she flew backwards and landed, unmoving, on the ground, nearly twenty feet from where she had been standing. Before he had gone more than three steps, though, he felt something grab his pant leg. Because of the darkness, when he glanced down he couldn't see clearly. What he saw, though, made him forget his fear for a moment.

"Rufus?!" The tiny mole rat hauled on Ron's leg, pulling him back into the rock formation. As he collapsed onto his knees, he realized that the mole rat wasn't Rufus. Anguish almost overcame him again, but the mole rat took off running into the rain. As Ron watched him, he remembered Kim, and leapt to his feet. He peered into the rain, now seeing not only the small mole rat that had stopped him, but literally hundreds of mole rats converging on Kim's prone body. They all managed to get hold of her and pull her to the rocks, making it just in time. The phoenix, still in Monkey Fist's body, of course, erupted once more with beams of light, scorching the ground, breaking and burning the few nearby trees, and opening a chasm that raced towards the outcropping of stone. As the strange procession halted beneath the tallest boulder, one of the many nearly identical mole rats scurried over and pushed against a small protrusion of rock at the base. Two of the slabs supporting the formation ground together as they slid apart, revealing a small opening.

"What the...?" Ron wasn't able to finish his stunned question, for the group surged ahead, pulling Kim into the dark opening. The stones began to close again, and the same mole rat that had stopped Ron before, at least he THOUGHT it was the same one, chittered at him and tugged at his pants. Taking the hint he dove through the shrinking hole, the mole rat clinging to his leg. The hole was pitch black, and Ron felt himself tumbling over and over, down a steep incline, until he skidded to a stop against a hard wall.

"Ow." He couldn't see anything, didn't know where Kim was, and was pretty sure the world was coming to an end, since the phoenix had become active and was wreaking havoc. Yet for all the recent events, he didn't whimper or cower. He may have simply been to numb to feel fear, or perhaps he realized that for once in his life he was on his own, and the fate of the world may be in his hands. Not that his hands knew what to do with the fate of the world. Nor his mind either. Kim was the smart one. The brave one. She and Rufus. Ron swallowed the still lump in his throat, pushing all such thoughts away as he braced himself against the wall and sat up. The area he was in was small, too short for him to stand in, yet not too small for him to crawl comfortably. Well, as comfortably as can be when one is crawling on all fours in a pitch-black mysterious hole deep underground. He had moved forward only a few inches when his hand came down on something soft. Something soft, warm, and moving.

"Eee!" he jumped back, images of all sorts of horrors, from giant tarantulas to killer monkeys, flying though his head. He hit his head on the ceiling, and dropped back on all fours, only to feel the...whatever it was... climbing up his arm. He stiffened, scrunching his eyes closed, though why he thought it would do any good was a moot point. The thing grabbed hold of his ear and let loose with what sounded suspiciously like annoyed chittering... and the occasional actual word.

"Hey!" The way it spoke...it reminded Ron of Rufus, and he relaxed somewhat as he realized it was the same mole rat from before. Though he could never replace Rufus, the little fellow seemed friendly, and gave Ron a bit more confidence, even as his presence took away some of the loneliness eating away at him.

"Sorry." He sat back, letting the wild mole rat climb around his shoulders and slide down his other arm. Tiny whiskers brushed his hand, and he felt the sharp claws mole rats used for all their endless tunneling digging into his finger. The claws disappeared, followed by some skittering noises ahead of him in the tunnel. They suddenly reappeared, tugging at him again, as if the mole rat wanted him to follow. He complied, muttering to himself as he moved along the cold tunnel.

"Gee, you need a name. Can't keep thinking of you as 'that mole rat'. Besides, with all those other mole rats I saw on the surface, there wouldn't be any way to keep track of you." He slowly made his way after his new friend, pondering good names, and trying desperately not to think about the loss of his two best friends.

"Bob? Fred? No..." He broke off his little guide jumped onto his shoulder and placed his clawed hands over Ron's mouth. Ron blinked, then heard the sound that had caught the animal's attention. A short ways ahead there seemed to be some kind of underground spring or river, as the sound of trickling water reached his ears. The mole rat, "Bernard? No...", leapt down and pulled at Ron's hand from the left side. Ron realized he wanted him to turn, so he carefully maneuvered in the direction his guide was leading. Ron caught himself humming a song from "Road to El Dorado", which he had seen recently at Kim's house before everything had happened.

"Heh," he laughed lightly, "that song is SO perfect for this adventure. If only Kim were here to share it...hmm hmm hmm the traaial we blaaze" he warbled a bit off key. "Ooh! That's it!" He stopped in his tracks, causing the mole rat to run back and pull on his fingers again. "How about Blaze, buddy? You're blazing a trail for us, right?" The mole rat cocked his head to one side, though Ron couldn't see it, considering.

"Hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm. O-k!" the words were harder to understand than Rufus' had been, but still audible. Ron gave a sort of sad smile as Blaze turned and scurried on ahead of him again. He moved forward a few more feet when, suddenly, the ground seemed to give way beneath him, tumbling him down a short slope, and depositing him once again on the hard rock floor. But this time he wasn't in a little tunnel. He blinked his eyes, trying to adjust to the light, which, though dim, hurt his eyes after the pitch darkness of the burrow he had just come from. He rubbed his eyes, then stared up...and up...and up to the ceiling of an immense cavern.

It was lit with tiny fiber-optic type mechanisms covering the walls like a giant web. Little machines hummed in every nook and cranny, little mole rats, surprisingly NOT naked, but dressed in miniature clothes, such as jumpsuits and hard hats, scurried about, tinkering with various projects, and there, in the center of the room, was a large spaceship, about the size of the one they had been trapped in, floating serenely about three feet off the floor. The ship gleamed, and though Ron's heart leapt at the thought that perhaps it was the same ship and perhaps Rufus was all right after all, his hopes quickly faded as he realized that all the technology in the cave was in some way connected to the ship, and had been for quite some time. Blaze had disappeared, and Ron remained on the ground, his legs tucked up under his chin, his arms around them, feeling more lost than ever. He lay hid head down on his knees, squeezing his eyes shut and willing the pain to go away. He was just about to realize that perhaps it never would, when he felt a human hand on his shoulder.

"Ron?"

To be continued...


	6. Legend of the Phoenix

* * *

"Earth to Ro-on" he lifted his head, blinking confusedly. 

"Hey, you ok?"

"Kim? Ki...KP!!!" Ron leapt to his feet and grabbed Kim in a crushing hug. He couldn't believe it was really her. "How...what...where?!" he stuttered incoherently, happily clinging to his best friend.

"Umm..Ron..can't breathe." He loosened his grip, stepping back slightly to look at her, assuring himself that she was really, truly there. Then hugged her tightly again.

"You're alive!"

"Uh, yeah. What's gotten into you?" Kim gave him a funny look, not quite sure why he was acting so...odd. He blushed, even turning the tips of his ears pink.

"Yeah, um... well, see...you got hit by that light thingy and you weren't moving and the storm was getting worse and the mole rats came out and they wouldn't let me go and they dragged you into the ground and you still weren't moving and when I got underground too I didn't know where they took you and I thought...and...I " he ground to a stop, but only because Kim had covered his mouth to shut him up.

"Ron! Chill. I'm ok, see? I was just knocked unconscious... it's happened before, you know." Ron blinked. He was silent, considering her words, then kind of hung his head a little.

"Yeah...but this time was different..." Kim hugged him gently, knowing how hard it was for him to have lost Rufus. No wonder he had panicked...having already lost one best friend that day, and to think that he had lost the other. She decided to get his mind off things.

"You are not going to believe what all I've seen down here! I mean, we always thought Rufus was special, right? Like a lab rat or something? But they're ALL like that, all of the mole rats! I don't know HOW all the scientists in the world have never discovered them, but they have and entire civilization down here! They have languages, one of their own and a few 'surface' languages like English and Spanish and probably some of the local African languages, though I wouldn't recognize them even if they do speak them. They have technology that is SO far advanced! I mean, my dad's a rocket scientist, I should know, right? It's amazing!" She stopped, catching her breath. Before she could continue, one of the many mole rats ran up to them. He was dressed in a black jumpsuit with silver markings that they didn't recognize. He scrambled up Ron's leg, gripping the fabric with his sharp claws. Ron quickly reached down and let him jump onto his hand. He then lifted him to eye level.

"Blaze?" The mole rat nodded enthusiastically. "I guess you probably already have your own name, seeing as you guys have a whole civilization down here, huh?" Blaze shook his head, making a slightly irritated face.

"Uh-uh, uh-uh, nope!" he grinned and pointed to the back of his jumpsuit where, when seen up close, could be recognized.

"One-nine-three-two-two" Kim read. "You have numbers instead of names?" Blaze nodded again then scurried up Ron's arm to rest on his shoulder, gripping Ron's ear.

"So should we call you 1-9-3-2-2, or 19-32-2, or 1-93-22, or...um...what?" Ron rolled his eyes to the side, trying to see the tiny being attached to his ear.

"Uh-uh!" Blaze said indignantly, "Blaze...Me like!" Kim grinned at Ron.

"Looks like you've corrupted him." He smiled back. Blaze tugged on Ron's ear to get his attention, then pointed towards the opposite end of the chamber.

"Come on come on!" Kim's eyes followed the direction he was pointing and then gave a little jump, like she was startled.

"Oh yeah! I totally forgot. When I came over to find you, I was supposed to bring you back to the council." Ron blinked at her, confused.

"Huh?"

"You know, their government, or whatever. They called themselves a council, so that's what I guess they are. The leader is the 'Chairman', and I think he's like the president or something, but I could be wrong. They didn't tell me much, just that they needed to talk to us...BOTH of us." Ron frowned a little at this; no one ever paid any attention to Ron Stoppable...he was just the sidekick. Usually they only cared about Kim. He didn't mind, not really...well, not too often, anyways. Blaze slid down his arm and leapt to the floor, beckoning them after him.

"Lead on, oh mighty trail blazer!" Ron joked. They made their way to through a maze of tiny computers, wires, and working mole rats, being very careful not to step on anything. Blaze led them around the perimeter of the suspended ship to where a small alcove was sunk into the cavern's wall. Ducking down, Kim and Ron followed closely as Blaze led them inside. The ceiling was low enough here to force them down onto their hands and knees, but not so low as to be really uncomfortable. At the far end of the chamber what looked like a miniature juror's box held fifteen mole rats of varying age, size, and appearance. All were well dressed in tiny, yet still flowing, robes in a rainbow of colors.

"Check it out! Kryptonians! You know, like in the comic book when Superman's parents sent him to Earth. You know! That's what they're dressed li...oomph" Kim elbowed Ron none to gently in the stomach, effectively cutting off his rambling whispers. The council members seemed to be speaking amongst themselves, some chittering and squeaking, while others could be heard using various human languages. All chatter ceased, though as Blaze led Kim and Ron to the council seats.

"Ah. Kim Possible. We are most honored by your presence." Kim glanced at Ron. Ron glanced at Kim. None of the other mole rats they had come across had ever had such a grasp of English, nor had they had such deep, commanding voices. Kim smiled slightly, preparing to throw out her patented "no big", but reconsidered, feeling the solemnity of the moment.

"I am honored to be here" she replied in kind, though more hesitantly.

"We have summoned you to this chamber on a matter of grave importance. As you know, a great evil is, even as we speak, being unleashed on the world above.

"You're talking about the phoenix attached to Monkey Fist, right?" The other members of the council stirred nervously, conversation breaking out. The chairman was able to quell the noise with just one look, but frowned as he turned back to Kim and Ron.

"Yes...we do not like to speak of it directly. You must forgive us. The... creature, you see, is an ancient enemy of out people. Many millennia ago our entire population fell from the stars to this planet after our own was destroyed by an evil being. It was a golden age for our civilization, with great accomplishments being made in all areas of science and technology. Our religion, based on our even more ancient ancestors' primitive beliefs, were being proven to be myths, the gods, only legends. The priests still had power, though it was failing. Perhaps desperation is what drove that particular priest to do what he did.

You see, our scientists were very important people, well paid, and given powerful positions. Yet always there is someone not content with his life, always wanting more. In this case one of the top scientists was overly ambitious. He wanted to have more power, and he was willing to do anything to get it. He made a deal with a high priest of Shioa, the sun god, to try to use his theories of the time-space continuum to contact the gods and prove once and for all that they exist. Of course the scientist didn't relly care about the gods, but he did need the priest's help in obtaining a rare element that was reserved for religious rites only. No scientist or commoner had any access to it, only the priests. Once he got hold of the Shioate, so named as it was used in sacrifices to Shioa, he was able to complete an invention that he believed would allow him to travel through time. Once he had that power, he planned to alter history, manipulate the very fabric of time, so that he could rule the world."

"Sounds familiar." Ron whispered wryly to Kim. She shushed him as the councilor continued.

"But his theory was flawed, and, instead of opening a time portal, he instead opened a doorway to another dimension. One in which beings of pure energy resided. The gateway was unstable, though, and collapsed only seconds after it was opened, causing a tremendous explosion, destroying the temple, and killing the scientist and the priest, along with many innocents who were in or around the temple. Unfortunately for our planet, those few seconds were all the time it took for two of the energy beings to cross into our world. One of the beings was benevolent, and for a few weeks reigned as a god, as our ancestors believed it to be a physical manifestation of Shioa. The other one, though, was evil. It avoided the people's notice for a few weeks, but had already begun its terrible campaign to destroy our world.

Both beings fed off energy, any energy they could find, including that of our sun and our planetary core. They both quickly discovered that feeding off the planet's core disrupted the natural flow of things and would eventually lead to the complete annihilation of out planet. Therefore Shioa, as the people believed it to be, refrained from draining the heart of the planet. Since nothing was known of the other, though, it was able to do its worst without detection. Once the signs began to show that Kirrn, our planet, was dying, the scientists realized that another, malevolent, being was residing within. Yet it was too late to save the planet. Shioa felt responsible for the destruction wreaked by its counterpart, and so gave itself to the construction of a great starship. Shioa could power the engines until a habitable planet could be found, recharging off the energy of other stars. The ship was built, the people evacuated, and the voyage begun.

It took the equivalent of many Earth years to reach this new planet, and when we reached it, we realized that it was vastly different from our own tropical Kirrn. There were many differing climates, and the planet had its own civilization beginning to develop, which we did not want to influence. And so we abandoned our ship in smaller pods such as the one you saw in the main chamber. To avoid contact with the humans we chose a less hospitable climate in which to reside. Since our own home had been very mild in temperature, never fluctuating more than 15 of your Farenheight degrees in either direction, we were unable to sustain colonies on the surface, where the heat and the arid conditions caused grave health problems in many of our people. We moved below the surface, building tunnels and cities that no human would ever see.

One side effect of the climate on the surface was that some of our ancestors became 'sun-damaged' in the mind. It was not a condition that could be reversed, and was hereditary. We now know that the sun of Earth has differing amounts and types of radiation output than Kirrn did, which caused mutations. But our ancestors could not support so many people who were no longer sentient, as it was hard enough to find the resources to survive here. So a plan was made to help keep our world a secret from the humans, if and when they ever grew intelligent enough to understand us. Groups of about twenty 'sun-damaged' individuals were sent out to start new colonies. A few scientists were assigned to each group to help ensure their survival.

Over the ages, these alternate colonies grew into animal colonies with one female, a 'queen' would rule over all the others, only breeding with a select few. The queen and breeders are, as you might guess, descended from the scientists who aided the 'sun-damaged' populations. This has provided excellent cover for us, as the human scientists believe they understand 'naked-mole-rats' and we can escape detection."

"Wow." Kim nodded at Ron's awed response.

"So I assume there is a connection with the phoe...I mean being which is now intent on destroying Earth and those that were brought into your world so long ago?"

"Yes indeed. Shioa enjoyed lesser beings. It took pleasure in bringing luck and aid to those in troubled situations."

"Like you guys when you had to get off your planet!" Ron cut in. The chairman nodded.

"Thus was born the human legend of the... phoenix." He waited for the murmurs to die down again. "Unfortunately, what we did not realize, was that the dark reflection of Shioa had accompanied us here as well. Shortly after our arrival, before we had moved beneath the surface, even, this planet began to experience tremendous tectonic upheavals, similar to those on Kirrn. Since we recognized the signs, we knew we must stop the evil one from destroying yet another planet. So, with the help of Shioa, we trapped it into a statue. The statue was an image of the god of the underworld, Hior, from our old religion on Kirrn. It was then placed in a hidden location where it was protected with written warnings and our own patrols.

It was meant to warn other Kirrnans, as humans had not yet begun building their own homes, let alone understanding any type of written language. Yet as your friend...a strange being, that, trying to fall back down the evolutionary ladder to a point that humans had surpassed even before we arrived...discovered..."

"Hey, he's not OUR friend!" Ron was indignant, hating to be linked with a monkey in any way.

"Indeed. But, as he discovered, our warnings and guards were not enough. He believed that the tales of the...creature...were true, but, due to a traveler from long ago, who stumbled across the 'temple' and recorded it to be discovered later, he believed the true being to be part monkey, as Hior did resemble an earth monkey with wings. This 'Monkey Fist' cannot understand the true nature of either Shioa or this twisted relation, as they defy logic. He found tales of burning birds and spirits and all kinds of myths and superstitions. Shioa did appear as a bird when it took a physical form, because it liked the gracefulness of the birds here on Earth. It appeared to burn because its body was pure energy. Because of this man's obsession he managed to locate the idol, and, because the idol was so old and the evil within corrupted its molecular structure, his hands damaged the idol, releasing the creature.

This being is evil, but it is not stupid. It knew we had posted guards on it, and it knows we can possibly defeat it once more. So it took the form of a 'spirit', poisoning its host's mind with misinformation while it fed off the energy of the human body. Now it has regained enough strength that it feels that it can make a stand against us.

Before, we defeated it with Shioa's help, yet also with the assistance of the magic that the Earth itself produces. As time has passed, the Earth's mystical energies have dwindled, some have disappeared altogether. Some of the deterioration was caused by age, some by the depletion of natural resources, which, though sad, is a natural part of the advancement of a civilization. The dwindling resources and energies haven't been a problem up until now, because there have been no 'magical' threats to fight against. Now, though, it is imperative that we restore these energies to the Earth in order to save it."

"O-K-ay" Ron drawled slowly, "and just how are you proposing to do that?" The chairman looked solemnly at the two of them.

"WE aren't. YOU are."

* * *

"Come again?" Kim raised her eyebrow at the chairman, frowning. He hastened to clarify.

"Well, not you actually. Rather it is your friend, Ron, is it? who will truly be needed to restore the Earth's energies." Kim looked at Ron dubiously. For his part, Ron didn't seem any more enthusiastic about the idea than she did. His eyes had grown round as saucers and he began slowly backing out of the alcove.

"Uhhmm...heh...yeah... about that. I think I'll pass..." he had nearly reached the entryway when Blaze jumped at him, grabbing his arm and clinging to it for dear life. He looked up at Ron with such a pleading expression, that Ron sighed and halted his retreat.

"Why do you run, Ron Stoppable? What is it you fear?" the chairman seemed genuinely confused. Kim smiled wryly, answering for Ron.

"Oh, you know, EVERYTHING. Just let him play out his drama for a second, then he'll be back to the land of the sentient." She turned to Ron, expecting a big to-do about the dangers and oh! the agony! or something along those lines. Instead she was confronted by a large pair of hurt brown eyes set into a wounded face.

"Ki-im! I'm not afraid of EVERYTHING!"

"Sorry, Ron."

"No big." He grinned at her, his hurt already forgiven and forgotten, using her own trademark response against her. He returned to his place beside her and they both turned to the council expectantly. The chairman blinked, not having been able to follow their exchange, and lokoed back and forth between the two of them. Then he shrugged.

"Ahem. As I was saying. Your Monkey Fist believed in some sort of mystical power, correct?"

"Oh-yeah! He was always going on and on and on and on ..."

"Ok, Ron, we get the picture."

"...and on" he stuck his tongue out at Kim, "about the MYSTICAL MONKEY POWER!!" he deepened his voice to imitate some sort of announcer, a creepy one at that, and let out a fake maniacal laugh. "A-Hahahahaha!"

"Ron, cut it out." Kim was turning red, embarrassed that he chose now to act up. He just sat back, pleased that he had managed a little bit of drama after all. Luckily the chairman was smiling at Ron's antics, instead of being offended.

"Yes, a monkey power. This power does, in fact, exist, though not, perhaps, for the reasons he believes. It is a mystical remnant from the time when animals ruled the earth, and the most intelligent species was a monkey. I know your scientists have always wondered about 'missing links' in the evolutionary ladder. Yet the answer to their quandary was right there in front of them... there ARE no links. Each time human ancestors advanced in intelligence and physical attributes, it was the result of the Earth's power giving them a boost. The power of transformation is only one of the many powers that the Earth contained in past millennia, but which have now nearly disappeared. Called a "monkey power" by one ancient race who worshipped monkeys and so believed the power was theirs, it is actually simply one part of the essence of the Earth's life-force."

"Coooool! Like in Star Wars!?" Kim groaned and buried her face in her hands.

"No, Ron Stoppable, it is simply a name to include all the mystical and ancient energies that I have just described; the powers that are all, in some way, connected to the planet itself. You see, Monkey Fist was able to harness some of the power for himself, but only for a short about of time. Believing he was given the gift of power, he did, in fact, only gain a small residue, though one that is, by no means, a small bit of magic. He has used the power to advance himself, to gain access to riches and other ancient monkey artifacts. Our own enemy, trapped though it was, could sense the use of these powers and drew Monkey Fist to it, falsely leading him to believe that he could gain the ultimate Monkey Power if he would but release it. After such a long imprisonment, it needed to recuperate, and so attached itself to Monkey Fist, feeding off the residue he contained. Now, though, it has regained enough strength that it believes it can finish what it started so many eons ago. We stopped it then, but only with the aid of Shioa and the use of the Earth's own magics. To defeat him now, we must... 'recharge' the power of the magic.

You, Ron Stoppable, have also tasted the power that Monkey Fist obtained. Your own intake of this power has given you a great gift, and, because of your pure heart, it has grown in strength, as opposed to the decreasing and slowly rotting away as it has in Monkey Fist."

"Soooo....you're telling us that the fate of the entire world rests in Ron's hands?" Kim bit her lip to stop the words 'we're doomed!' from escaping. Ron looked as if he, too, realized the precariousness of Earth's continued existence. He had paled and glanced at Kim with a look that clearly screamed "I CAN'T DO IT!!!!"

"Hey, no big, right Ron?" She smiled at him, masking her own doubts in order to give him the confidence he needed. He simply stared at her incredulously. "I mean, we save the world every day!"

"Uh, newsflash, Kim! YOU save the world. I tag along as the sidekick and DISTRACTION!"

"Oh, come on, Ron! You've saved the world, too." He raised an eyebrow at her, silently daring her to name one instance. "Well...um...ok, you've save the day, anyways. Like when you defeated Gill, or brought all those kids to Drakken's lair to stop his 'elderly army', or even when you turned me back when I was a monkey!"

"WADE did that, Kim, I just pointed and zapped!"

"Yeah, but you kept Monkey Fist off my back long enough for Wade to come up with the cure." Ron shrugged, not convinced. "The important thing is that I BELIEVE you can do it, Ron!" She placed her hand on his shoulder as he looked down, deep in thought. He faced her again, with a wry smile.

"I guess since the world is doomed anyway, it couldn't hurt for me to try...I mean, it's not like I can screw it up anymore, right?" Kim laughed and hugged him.

"That's my Ron!" She looked back to the council, who had all disappeared. Only the chairman remained, and he had left the podium to approach them.

"Very good. Now, come. We haven't much time."

To be continued...


	7. Quakes and Quagmires

"Shego!" Dr. Drakken pounded on the door to his laboratory in vain. The door in question had become wedged shut in a sudden, and quite unexpected, earthquake, which had hit only a few minutes before.

"Shego!" his voice took on a whiny quality as the door remained shut. "Get me out of here!" When he received no reply, he slid to the floor, pouting. The ceiling had partially collapsed in the quake, crushing his computers and destroying his latest plans to take over the world and destroy Kim Possible. As he sat on the floor, dejected, his lower lip began to tremble. How was he going to take over the world if he was trapped in this lab?

"You bellowed?" he looked up to see Shego's face framed by a hole in the ceiling. As he watched she melted the rock surrounding her, widening the hole so that she could drop down into the chamber.

"It's about time!" Shego ignored him, brushing dust and debris off of her clothes and checking her hands for broken nails. "I mean, REALLY, where have you been?!" he continued to rant as she combed her fingers through her hair, dislodging some pieces of rubble. Finally, satisfied that she looked, in her opinion, as stunning as ever, she turned to glare at Drakken.

"Yeah, well, you know my favorite soap was on and I wanted to see if Joe and Gloria would...where do you THINK I've been?!" Her hand began glowing green, and Drakken backed away nervously. "In case it escaped your immeasurable intellect, we JUST experienced an EARTHQUAKE!! I kinda had to dig myself out before I could get to you, now, didn't I? I don't know why I didn't just leave you in here. HONESTLY." She turned, her ire forgotten for the moment, as she surveyed the damage done to the lab.

"Um... Shego..." She turned back, raising an eyebrow in a gesture that clearly stated "do you REALLY want to be talking to me right now?" Drakken fell silent and she returned to her perusal.

"Well...I guess THAT scheme won't be working now," she grinned, adding under her breath, "not that it would have before the quake anyway." The room trembled with the force of an aftershock, and Drakken whimpered, looking around at the walls, afraid they would come tumbling down on them.

"Oh, come on!" Shego grabbed Drakken and shoved him through the opening she had made earlier in the ceiling. She leapt up after him, narrowly avoiding another shower of falling rocks. After a few minutes of slow, painful crawling on hands and knees through the treacherous building, the duo emerged to find the outside world looking little better than the interior of the collapsed edifice they had just exited. The sky was dark, with angry clouds churning close to the ground. Trees and buildings were in various degrees of disarray, and lightning flashed nearby.

"O-k. Looks like we're not too much better off out here." Shego observed.

"Ohh! And my lair! It's ruined! Do you know how much money I'm goingt o lose on the deposit!?" Shego rolled her eyes and started to walk away when something caught her attention. She carefully made her way over to a pile of rubble where she had spotted a flash of silver. Lifting a few pieces of debris off the top, she revealed the hovercraft lying intact, relatively unharmed. A wicked grin lit up her face as she powered it up and activated an interactive touch screen on the console.

"Come on already, Dr. D!" Drakken turned and saw the disk hovering a few feet off the ground. His face lit up, and he scurried over the uneven ground to where Shego waited.

"Yes! Perfect!" While Shego maneuvered the craft up and away from the destruction, Drakken accessed the ship's computer systems. "Aha! I've found the origin of the earthquake....Shego! Take us to these coordinates."

"And I would want to do this...why?" She stopped their momentum and folded her arms across her chest.

"Errr, ahhh...grr! Just do it, ok?! That earthquake was not natural, I tell you. See?" he pointed at some information on the screen. "There aren't any faults or tectonic disturbances anywhere near here! So that means SOMEONE is trying to get rid of me, and I intend to find out who!"

"Paranoid much?" Shego asked, not impressed. "There are other reasons for unexplained natural phenomena than that someone's out to get you." Drakken ignored her. Shego sighed and turned back to the controls, intending to steer them to the coordinates Drakken had provided.

"Umm...are you SURE this is the location of the epicenter of the quake that just hit here?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Drakken snapped, annoyed at how she always had to question his orders and his doomsday plans and his reasons for... "Out of curiosity, why do you ask?" he told himself that he was only pretending interest to let her feel like she was contributing, though he really knew more than she did.

"Oh, no reason really, except that you have us traveling to the OTHER SIDE of the WORLD!!"

"Huh?" Drakken looked down at his screen. "Africa? But...but...but that IS where the quake originated!" Shego snorted derisively.

"Right, sure, uh-huh. Who's ever heard of an earthquake reaching over 6000 miles??"

"I don't know!" he whined, "but that's where it was, see?" Shego glanced down at the information he was presenting. For some reason the area on the map seemed vaguely familiar...

"Hey! Isn't that where Kim Possible and Monkey Fist were teaming up earlier today?" She pointed to a position a few miles of the coast, only thirty miles from the epicenter.

"Hmmmm? Yes...yes it is! I TOLD you the quake was to get rid of me, Shego! Kim Possible must have set it off in order to thwart me in my latest scheme!"

"Yeah...not exactly her style, Dr. D. She's more of the beat 'em and book 'em type, rather than a sneaky murderer." Shego said wryly. "Probably why it's so easy for us to escape and try to take over the world time and time again!" she added under her breath.

"Shego," Drakken began in a patronizing tone, "you obviously have no grasp of how desperate she must be to stop us! She knows that it is only a matter of time before I succeed in taking over the world!!" Shego grimaced, realizing that she wasn't going to be able to win this argument, as Drakken had obviously made up his mind. Taking control of the hovercraft once more, she plotted the course and set the disk in motion.

* * *

"Auugh!" Ron Stoppable ducked as an enormous shard of rock flew by his head. He and Kim had left the relative safety of the mole rat colony in order to see if they could salvage their hovercraft and the Kimmunicator, which had fallen from Kim's pocket when the energy blast from the phoenix had struck her.

"Come ON, Ron!" Kim grabbed him by the arm and dragged him after her as they made a mad dash across the savanna. The storm had grown immeasurably worse; the wind nearly blew them off their feet and lightning struck swiftly, creating a nearly inescapable web of energy. Debris flew about their heads, loosened by the lightning strikes and kept aloft by the hurricane force gusts. The earth trembled beneath their feet, churning as if it would either toss them to the wind or split itself open and devour them whole.

"KP!" Ron clutched Kim's arm, trying to get her attention and at the same time attempting not to fall. He pointed at a flash of light a few yards away.

"The Kimmunicator!" Leaning on each other for support, they picked their way across the rubble. Kim reached down, brushing dirt off the device, and examining it for damage. She didn't see any, but a more thorough examination would have to wait, as the storm was intensifying. She glanced around, but couln't see any indication that the vehicle was still intact. Grabbing Ron again, she scrambled back towards the rocks and the safety of the underground tunnels. As they neared the entrance, she spied Blaze waving frantically, and she veered right, just in time to avoid being skewered with a flying tree branch.

"Thanks, Blaze." She sighed as the stones closed around them and the howling of the wind died, the sounds unable to penetrate the thick rock. They hurried back to the main chamber, where an army of mole rats, or Kirrnans, she supposed, were hastening to get their sip in working order so that Kim and Ron could travel to... well, she wasn't sure where. All they had told her was that they needed to find the "birthplace".

"Does it work? Does it? huh?" Ron peered over Kim's shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of Wade.

"Back off, Ron. I haven't tried it yet." She pressed a button, waited, fiddled with it a little, and pressed the button again. "Drat! It isn't... HEY!" Blaze had jumped from a nearby stone formation and snatched the Kimmunicator from her hands. He started taking it apart, muttering to himself. Kim and Ron watched silently, hoping the little guy could get it to work

"Ta-DAA!" Blaze held up the Kimmunicator. Kim reached for it, just as the screen lit up, revealing Wade's relieved face.

"Kim! You're all right! Where's Ron? What happened?"

"Long story, no time. Here's the short version... evil energy being destroying the world unless Ron can get to somewhere called the "birthplace" and magically conjure up all the Earth's ancient mystic powers." Wade blinked at her, once...twice.

"Um. Ok. I'll get right on that."

"Please and Thank you!" Kim said absently, one of the Kirrnan workers catching her eye and gesturing for them to follow him. He led them through the maze of machinery and into the ship. Kim and Ron had to get back down on their hands and knees, as the ship's corridors were too small to let them walk upright. They entered a larger room, one which had obviously been hastily redesigned to accommodate their larger bodies, which resembled a bridge off of any science fiction show's ship. Their guide indicated that they should sit down, on the floor, unfortunately, since there were no chairs large enough, and proceeded to "debrief" them.

"Start. Stop. Up...Down...Turn." He pointed at each control as he listed them. "Coordinates set. The council summons Shioa... you fix the energy, OK?" Then he scampered out, not waiting for their reply, and the door slid shut behind him. Blaze grinned and hopped up to the controls.

"Ready?" Ron shook his head violently, but Kim and Blaze ignored him as the craft rose into the air. It hovered for a moment, then rocketed skywards.

"Aaaagh! We're gonna crash!" But Ron was mistaken, as the ceiling parted, allowing them to shot out of the ground and into the sky, fast enough to avoid damage from the storm.

"Hey, Wade..." Kim held up the Kimmunicator, waiting for the young man to reappear on screen.

"Yeah?"

"Here are the coordinates we're headed to. Any info?" Wade clicked on another monitor and typed furiously.

"Can't tell you much, just that it is deep in the Amazon. Uncharted territory, so there isn't a lot of information."

"Ok. Thanks." The ship was hovering above the storm, waiting for the command to continue to its destination. Kim reached up to press the button, but hesitated as she noticed something out the viewport. "Drakken and Shego?" she shrugged, knowing there wasn't time to look into it now. She hit the button and the ship zipped away, disappearing over the horizon.

To be continued...


	8. Dodgy Disappearances

Though it seemed like hours, in reality only about thirty minutes had passed since leaving the African coast. The Kirrnan spacecraft was extremely fast, and Kim found herself admiring the vehicle's abilities. She rubbed a sore spot on her arm, a souvenir from the evil phoenix's energy ray, and wondered what to expect when they arrived. She glanced at Ron, who had been unusually quiet since takeoff. He sat silently, staring out the viewport, but not really noticing the passing scenery. Kim glanced in the other direction, noticing that Blaze was keeping busy monitoring readouts printed in an unfamiliar language.

For his part, Ron didn't notice the passing of time...or the lack thereof. Since being reunited with Kim he hadn't had time to sit and think, but the events of the last few hours had finally caught up with him. He had no idea how he was supposed to "save the world". That was Kim's job, no matter what she said. He may have the power, given to him through Monkey Fist's icons, but he didn't understand it or want it. No one had explained how he was to use the power either. "Jump-start" the planet's magical energies. Right. Sure. No problem. Actually, there was a problem.

"Rufus." The name slipped out unintentionally, and he snuck a quick peek at Kim to see if she had noticed. She hadn't, and he returned to his brooding. Whenever "Team Possible" had gone on a mission, Kim had save the world. When she needed help, it had always been Rufus who knew what to do. Ron had just been the sidekick...the distraction. And he LIKED that role. He didn't have to think too hard or worry that if he messed up the world would end. Half the time he was SUPPOSED to mess up, as part of the distraction. Now the whole world depended on him, and he no longer had his confidence. Rufus seemed to have supplied that too.

"I think we're descending" Kim broke into his reverie. He blinked quickly, looking out at the rapidly approaching rain forest. He couldn't see any significant landmarks, anything to indicate they were in the right spot, but he supposed he'd have to trust the mole rats' programming. The craft touched down lightly, and Blaze jumped down from the console. He half-ran, half-slid down the corridor and opened the outer hatch. Kim and Ron followed a bit more slowly. Upon exiting, Kim withdrew the Kimmunicator.

"Ok, Wade, we've landed. Any ideas as to what we do now?"

"The mole rats...I mean Kirrnans...didn't tell you?" Wade had gotten a more in-depth explanation of the situation during the flight.

"No. I'm not sure they even know. The only info they could give was that we needed to be here and Ron had the magical powers needed to save Earth." Wade shook his head, chuckling.

"I never would have guessed that one day Ron would be the one to REALLY save the world. And with magic, no less! I have to admit, Kim, I don't know how much help I'll be. It's hard to fight magic with science."

"You did it when she was a monkey!" Ron appeared over her shoulder, sounding a but accusatory.

"Yeah, well I had DNA to work with!" Wade shot back. Kim pushed Ron back.

"Chill, you two! We're all stressed but let's not take it out on each other." The two boys nodded repentantly. Blaze had disappeared into the forest and suddenly returned, chittering excitedly and pointing into the undergrowth.

"I guess we should follow." They picked their way through the dense foliage, trying not to stumble. After only a minute or so, they came upon an ancient ruin, overgrown and nearly covered with vegetation. The carvings made little sense to Kim, but Blaze had scampered into the dark entrance, so she shrugged. "This must be the place."

"Yeah." Ron sounded so dejected that Kim reached out and took him by the hand. She knew how much he must be hurting, after losing Rufus. Now he was somehow going to hopefully save the world, but at what cost? Ron loved coming on her adventures, but he wasn't really as brave as she was. He had to be terrified as the unknown loomed ever closer.

Just inside the door the floor dropped into a set of eroded stone stairs. The trio carefully made their way down, deep into the earth. As they descended, darkness enclosed them, seeming to smother them with its intensity. Kim could feel Ron tensing up, and just as she was about the break the silence to calm him, she noticed a glow emanating from somewhere below. It grew brighter and brighter the lower they traveled. Finally the stairs gave way to flat ground once again, and they found themselves on the edge of a great room. In the center a strange orb floated, pulsing with a light that seemed to be alive. Kim stopped, entranced by the rhythmic fluctuations. Shaking the effects off, she turned to Ron, but he wasn't there anymore. She looked around, startled, and saw him moving slowly towards the light. An uneasy feeling welled up inside her, and she stepped forward, intending to stop him.

"Ron..." It was as if her actions had awakened some sentient being within the orb. The intensity of the light doubled, then tripled, and the globe began to grow. Kim shielded her eyes, feeling the heat wash over her. When the light dimmed again her heart leapt, for there was now a barrier of energy between her and Ron. She tested it, but it resisted her attempts to pass through, though it did her no harm. Ron seemed to be in some kind of a trance, slowly approaching the center of the room without notice of anything else. Blaze struggled up Kim's leg and managed to climb onto her shoulder. They watched helplessly as Ron reached out a hand. As he made contact, the room erupted in a blinding flash of light, and a great wind blew through the chamber. As Kim blinked furiously, trying to regain her sight, she noticed that the room suddenly seemed... different. She shook her head, clearing her eyes of the last few spots, and gasped.

"Where's Ron?!" She frantically punched buttons on the Kimmunicator.

"What happened?" Wade's image was blurred by static.

"Ron disappeared!" She heard a rapid clicking, and knew Wade was trying to get information on their location.

"Kim, my readings show that there is MASSIVE geological activity going on back where Monkey Fist is. The repercussions are reaching across the globe!"

"Not helping!" she cried, struggling to keep from screaming. She was a person of action... feeling helpless made her feel...well...helpless. And she hated it.

"No, let me finish! The activity is on a global scale, but it WAS on a greater global scale five minutes ago than it is right now."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that whatever Ron did seems to be helping! The earthquakes, eruptions, storms...all of them are lessening in an expanding circle, with your location at the center."

"Ok....that's the good news...but what happened to Ron!?" Wade typed furiously.

"Ummm... I'm not sure."

"You have him microchipped...where IS he?"

"Weeellll...." Kim's heart dropped into her stomach. He wasn't...he couldn't be... "My readings show him in, um, well, I can't pinpoint him."

"What? Why not?"

"Because he seems to be moving, at incredible speed, back towards Monkey Fist and the evil phoenix." Kim turned and ran back up the stairs, heading for the spaceship. Blaze held on tightly to her hair, to keep from falling and being left behind. The reached the craft and started it up, setting it to return to the Kirrnan colony. Everything was coming to a head, and Kim just hoped she could make it in time.

* * *

"What the...?!" Shego felt herself fly through the air, when only moments ago she had been steering the hovercraft to its destination.

"SHE-EGOO!" She barely registered Drakken's frightened cry before slamming into the ground with a jolt. She sat up, rubbing her head, and noticed two objects plummeting to the ground in much the same manner... Dr. Drakken and the Hovercraft. They, too, crashed with a loud THUD and an explosion, respectively. Shego didn't waste any time wondering if Drakken was all right. She leapt to her feet and flipped backwards towards some rocks that she hoped would offer her shelter. Sliding under a large protrusion, she thought back over the last half-hour to try to figure out what went wrong.

She and Drakken had reached the coordinates of the epicenter of the earthquake. She had still been disinclined to believe it was all about Drakken, and the ensuing quarrel had ended with neither of them talking to the other. The storm had worsened progressively as they approached, and Shego had stopped the hovecraft, wisely wanting to keep out of the most violent part of the tempest. Drakken, on the other hand, had angrily jabbered at her, and pointed to the controls, indicating that she should proceed. She wasn't sure what little shoulder demon had prompted her to listen to him, she didn't USUALLY pay any attention to Drakken, but she had complied. What they had seen at the center of the storm convinced her that Drakken was DEFINITELY wrong about everything.

Monkey Fist. A GLOWING Monkey Fist had been floating about 200 feet above the ground. His eyes were closed, and Shego couldn't tell if he was in a trance, unconscious, or dead. Energy flashed every so often from the aura surrounding him, keeping the storm's intensity building. Shego had tried to back the craft away, but one of the beams had caught them and torn the vehicle apart, sending them flying every which way.

"Hurry!" Shego looked up...she knew that voice! She was just in time to see Kim Possible and her stupid little sidekick's bald rodent running to the other side of the rock formation. Hesitating, she looked back to Drakken, but he had disappeared. She shrugged, and followed Kim around to the back of the rocks. She was just in time to catch a glimpse of Kim's foot as it disappeared into a cave-like opening...an opening that was rapidly closing! Shego leapt after her, sliding in just as the stones fell back into place. She felt herself sliding, falling, and then...

"Oomph!" she had landed on someone, and the resulting struggle to untangle arms and legs only served to earn her a few more bruises. Suddenly a light clicked on, blinding her.

"Shego!?" Oh. Great.

"Hey Kimmie." Shego's first rule...never let Kim Possible know if she's managed to get to you.

"What are YOU doing here?"

"I could ask the same." Shego glared pointedly.

"I'M trying to save the WORLD. What's your excuse?"

"Mwmble drnmpe phmbles"

"Come again??"

"Drakken thought it would be a good idea."

"Why?"

"Because he thought the earthquake that wrecked his lair came from you, and you were here!" Kim raised her eyebrow. She could tell that Shego was pretty much fed up with her boss. But she also wasn't about to start being a "good guy" either.

"O-Kaay. Right. So where is Drakken?" Shego shrugged, not really caring. Kim rolled her eyes. "I don't have time for this. Blaze, take Shego somewhere secure. I've gotta find Ron, and see if we can stop this thing." The rodent nodded, saluting, and then prodded Shego with the flashlight it was carrying.

"Pshyea right!" Shego looked down disdainfully. Kim turned back to face her.

"I'd cooperate if I were you. The Kirrnans have a highly developed technological culture, and that flashlight also contains a laser, an acid spray, and an electro-shock mechanism." Shego looked down again, a little less sure of herself. Before she could respond, Kim had vanished down the dark tunnel. Shego turned to follow, and felt a numbness tingling up her leg. She looked down to see the... WHAT had Kim called it?... brandishing its weapon and giggling.

"Hehe...low setting!" Shego rolled her eyes and decided maybe she HAD better cooperate... for now.

Meanwhile, Kim had reached the main chamber and pulled out the Kimmunicator.

"Hey, Wade, I'm in. So where is he?" Wade shrugged.

"I dunno, Kim. My reading say he's somewhere nearby. I still can't figure out how..." he was cut off by a loud shriek. Kim turned, and nearly dropped the Kimmunicator at what she saw. Circling the ceiling at amazing speeds was a creature so brilliant, so beautiful, it defied words. This was DEFINITELY a phoenix, she thought. She could barely make out the image of a bird...a peacock from the looks of it. But it was about twenty times larger than any peacock she'd ever seen.

"Wade...can you SEE this?! It must be Shioa. It's so beautiful..." she looked down. Wade looked like he was about to be sick. "Wade, are you ok?"

"Ummmm. Kim?" she waited. "I think.... I mean....I..."

"Come on, Wade, spit it out."

"Well, either my readings are WAY off, or that...that..."

"Phoenix" Kim supplied.

"Yeah, well I think that phoenix is....Ron!"

"Ron?" Kim looked up at the creature. No way...he couldn't be...he wasn't... but some things were starting to fall into place. The Kirrnans had never told them just HOW Ron was going to save the world...or give back the magical energies. What if... what if he had been some kind of sacrifice...if he was...

No. She wouldn't think that. She whirled around and set off purposefully towards the council chamber. She WOULD get some answers.

To be continued...


	9. The Battle Begins

The chamber seemed dimmer than she recalled. As she crawled towards the dais, she noted that the council members were no longer there. She kept moving forward, though, hoping to find a clue to their whereabouts on the long platform. She had just stuck her head under one of the tables, when a voice startled her, causing her to hit her head on the underside of the table.

"Miss Possible. Can I help you?" it was the chairman of the council, looking as calm as ever, not seeming to realize the possibility that Kim's best friend may have just turned into the world's biggest night light.

"Uh...yeah!" she couldn't quite manage to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. "What happened to Ron?! You didn't say anything about him turning INTO the phoenix, or Shioa, or whatever you call that thing!! BRING HIM BACK!!!" Kim had launched herself at the small being, forgetting in her torment the small confines of the room. She hit her head, again, and fell inelegantly to the floor. She sat up slowly, gingerly rubbing her head and wincing.

"Right. Now that that's done, I believe we need to talk, you and I." The councilman held out his tiny paw, as if he could help her to her feet. She scoffed at it, but meekly followed him through a hidden door into a more private chamber. The chairman sat down behind a miniature desk, and indicated that Kim should sit as well. As none of the furniture in the room could possibly hold her, she found herself sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Ok. Soooo?" She raised an eyebrow at the chairman, impatient for him to explain. He did not quite meet her eyes as he began to speak.

"First of all, I must apologize, Kim Possible, for not foreseeing this. I am the keeper of knowledge here in our society, and as such hold all the secrets of our past. Yet even with such knowledge I am not omnipotent. Our histories have many holes in them, missing pieces that have long been forgotten. The history of Shioa is, apparently, such a story. You humans have the story of the phoenix, which we have explained to you from our point of view. But what has apparently been lost to us is that Shioa needs a living host to take a corporeal form. As your friend activated the old energies of the Earth, we here were following ancient rituals, attempting to bring back Shioa to help fight this evil. Unbeknownst to us, our cries had been heard and Shioa had risen to the challenge...half a world away. When 19322 contacted us," it took Kim a second to realize he was talking about the Kirrnan Ron had named Blaze, "I knew that our histories had omitted something important. I immediately set to work digging through the old texts, with my apprentices, to try to discover what we were missing. In one of the texts, damaged by a long-ago fire, it spoke of how Shioa came to be. But the damage had, until today, prohibited us from knowing that the explosion caused by the entry of Shioa and the evil one into our universe did NOT, in fact, kill the scientist and priest. Instead their bodies had been taken as hosts for the two energy beings."

"But, does that mean..." he cut her off.

"When your friend gave himself to, or was taken by, Shioa, the missing parts of all our histories were restored. That is how I know now, what has happened. Shioa has always looked after us Kirrnans; though not truly a diety, he is the closest thing to a god our civilization has had in many millennia. But to answer your fears... I simply do not know. The record said that the two were taken as bodily hosts for the energy creatures, but how the author knew this, or whether they survived or not, that is not recorded. I am sorry." Kim hugged her knees to her chest, breathing heavily. Before she could organize her thoughts, the ground shook and rocks cascaded from the ceiling.

"You must go now, Kim Possible. There is no time for mourning now. Shioa is ready to fight, and so must you be. The green woman who followed you in, she is being held in a chamber...here." He pointed to a diagram on a screen that had just appeared on the wall. "We know she is your enemy, but today you must unite to save all our lives. There is no time for personal vendettas. This has been explained to her, and..."

"Yeah, well I'm not sure she'll cooperate."

"She will. She has already agreed. Even those we call evil usually have a touch of good in them," he chided gently, "and even if they don't, we can count on them to wish to save their own skins." Kim smiled ruefully, boy wasn't THAT the truth. "Her energy bolts can serve as your defense as you..."

"WAIT, Shego's going to be watching my back!? I don't think so!"

"Do not worry. She knows that if you are injured, or die, then all is lost. That is, perhaps why your friend had to be the one taken. Shioa not only uses its host to form a body, it feels the feelings, emotions, of the host as well. So, knowing how your friend cares for you, Shioa will not let anything happen to you. We have explained this to the young lady, that if you are injured or killed, Shioa will not be able to complete its mission, and she, and the world, will die."

"O-kay, I guess." Kim wasn't sure having Ron's mind in an immensely powerful energy being was the wisest idea, but it was too late to back out now.

"Good. Now, Shioa will be fighting the...other one, and Miss Shego will protect you, as well as attacking the beast, if the opportunity arises. Your job is to deliver the agent that will imprison the creature again. Once it is imprisoned, we will destroy it, as we should have done years ago. Take this talisman," he handed her a little stone monkey, which she pocketed, "when the creature is weak enough... you will know the time, for it will cease to have control of the elements and fall once more... you must attach this to it. It will be transformed back into the idol that Monkey Fist released it from, and we will take it from there. Any questions?" Kim shook her head, overwhelmed. This was it. The showdown was approaching. She made her way back out to the main chamber and gazed up at the Phoenix, still swooping joyfully around the room.

"Um, mister phoenix?" the bird ignored her. "Shioa?" How was she supposed to get this thing to go fight with her? She felt a tug on her pants, and bent down to pick up Blaze. Both of them turned their attention back to the bird. Somehow, though Kim knew it was a benevolent being, she couldn't help feeling bitter towards it for stealing her best friend. Ron had never known what hit...wait! She hesitated, heart thumping madly. "R- Ron?" she managed to squeak out. Immediately the phoenix stopped it's wild flight and came to rest on the ground next to her. It cocked its head, as if to say 'what are we waiting for?' Kim smiled up at it, or was it a he? He was about five feet taller than her, shining with an inner glow. His feathers seemed to be made of gold and jewels...they sparkled in the dim light with all the colors of the rainbow. He bent his head down, blinked at Blaze, and, as if some understanding had passed between them, Blaze saluted and slid down into a pocket in Kim's cargo pants. The phoenix looked at her again, then let out a trilling call, one that sounded more like music than actual birdsong. He took off again, this time towards the exit, and Kim ran after it, stopping briefly, only to pick up a sullen Shego. The small group emerged into the storm again, blinking against the fury of the wind.

"Here goes nothing."

* * *

The battle had started so well. Kim huddled beneath a fallen tree, nursing a sprained shoulder and multiple cuts and other minor injuries. Out on the savanna the battle raged on. Shego, surprisingly enough, was fighting to the best of her ability, using her lasers to inflict as much damage as possible, while the phoenix...the GOOD one...Shioa (she couldn't really bring herself to think of it as Ron, even if he was in it somewhere... Ron WASN'T a twenty-foot high glowing bird) ... wove in and out of the fray. It didn't seem that much progress had been made, and again, Kim wondered how everything had gone downhill so fast.

When Shego, Kim, and Shioa had left the shelter of the burrow, the other, evil, phoenix had still been suspended in midair, wreaking havoc. Although he was not visible, Kim now knew that Monkey Fist, like Ron, had to have been...absorbed in some way to give the being its corporeal form. The image that had grown from this creature, though, was a horrific, twisted type of winged creature...very similar to a monkey in appearance. As the chairman had explained, this was the image of their evil god, Hior. There were some differences in its appearance from that of a monkey; apart from the wings, its snout was longer, as were its canines, which caused an almost vampirish look. It also was tailess, and each limb had six digits instead of five.

The small band of warriors had coordinated their attack so as to confuse their foe. Kim had used some of Wade's gadgets to create a distraction as they emerged from their hiding place. Shego had tried blinding it with her lasers, but the being's own glow was so powerful that it was unimpressed. Shioa had then attacked; the two mystical, glowing, otherworldly beings latched on to one another in a struggle for dominance. This was the point at which Kim saw her opening and ran forward, hoping to attach the talisman and end the battle quickly. Unfortunately she had forgotten the chairman's council to wait until the evil phoenix lost its control over the elements and, as a result, ended up hiding under a tree desperately trying to mend her wounds enough that she could rejoin the struggle and overcome the creature. Blaze, being so small and close to the ground, had managed to avoid getting hit with flying debris when Kim had fallen. But he had since disappeared, and she feared that he may be gone for good.

"Aahhh! Look out!" Kim ducked as Shego flew over her head. At the last minute her hand lashed out, catching the flying villainess by the collar and pulling her to the relative safety of the fallen tree.

"So... how're we doing?" Kim ripped a strip off the hem of her shirt to use as a bandage.

"Let's just say kicking this guy's butt will be about a HUNDRED times more rewarding than all the time's I've kicked yours."

"As if!" Kim tied off her makeshift bandage and glared at Shego. Shego rolled her eyes, knowing that this short truce of theirs was going to drive her crazy, if it didn't kill her. Kim peeked over the log to see if she could spot an opening.

"Aren't you supposed to be out their trying to weaken that thing?" Kim shoved at Shego.

"Hey! I don't see YOU rushing to confront it!"

"YOU are the one with lasers!" Kim pushed her again, and Shego rolled out from under their shelter. She came up, lasers blasting, and charged the phoenix with reckless abandon. Kim sighed, then reached for the talisman... only to find an empty pocket! Frantic, now, she felt around in the dirt, desperately searching for the key to saving Earth. The winds were dying down; as she glanced up momentarily, she could see the two energy beings apparently locked together, almost melding into one, in their lethal battle. Shioa SEEMED to be gaining the upper ground, and Kim again dug around in the mud, trying to locate the talisman. A loud shriek caught her attention and she looked up again, only to see Shioa take a powerful blow to the head. The phoenix managed to shake itself and return to the fray, but she could tell it, too, was beginning to tire.

"A-ha!" Kim looked towards the sound. There was Blaze, alive, thank goodness, holding up the talisman triumphantly. He started running towards her and she went to meet him halfway. Before she could reach him, though, the ground in front of her exploded, knocking the artifact from the little Kirrnan's claws. Kim saw the talisman fly through the air as if in slow motion and dove to catch it. But a flash of light, and a clap of thunder, burst through the air around her. Once her vision cleared, she saw a smoking hole in the ground, not five feet away from her, and felt her heart stop. The talisman. From the angle of the lightning strike, she guessed that it would have been vaporized along with the first few inches of dirt. She glanced back at the battle as Blaze reached her and scrambled up her arm to her shoulder. The talisman... their only hope... was gone. There was nothing left to do. For the first time in her life, Kim Possible had encountered something she could NOT do. She buried her face in her hands and wept.

To be continued...


	10. Triumph and Tragedy

A sharp pain in her skull brought Kim back to consciousness. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her head. What was...? She reached towards the part of her head that ached and encountered a soft, warm body.

"Blaze! Stop pulling my hair!" Kim managed to get the little Kirrnan to let go, and she grabbed hold of him. "What?!" he was chittering frantically, and too quickly for her to understand. She glanced around, noticing that the fury of the storm had abated somewhat. She was huddled behind a fallen tree...the same tree that she had sought shelter in earlier. Now why was she... oh. Right. The past few minutes returned with a crushing clarity. She had lost the talisman. The magical one that would have trapped the evil energy spirit in it forever. She remembered feeling desolate, and she had given up. But she had rallied quickly. She remembered telling herself to pull it together and get back to work. That's the last thing she could recall. Her head still throbbed, though Blaze was no where near it, and she supposed she must have been struck down by flying debris.

"Ok, so...we need a plan B." Blaze nodded, but then frowned and pointed. Kim's heart sank as she recognized the motionless form lying crumpled in the mud. "And Shego's been taken out." Kim looked around for a tool, a weapon... anything that would help. Then she smacked a hand to her forehead.

"Duh! Wade!" She dug out the Kimmunicator, pressing the button to connect to Wade. She hadn't spoken to him since they began, not having time for distractions.

"What up, Kim? How are things going?" Wade's worried face appeared in the viewscreen and Kim gave a slight sigh of relief. At least she wasn't completely out of options yet.

"Wade, give me some good news!" Wade looked puzzled, so she continued. "The magic talisman that the Kirrnans developed to trap this evil....thing....got vaporized! Shego's been knocked cold, or dead, for all I know, and the other one, Shioa, I guess, isn't faring too well." Wade grimaced.

"I don't know what to tell you, Kim. I've been analyzing the Earth's tectonic activity, and if you don't stop that thing in the next half-hour or so, we're all toast!" Kim groaned.

"Is that all you can say? Don't you have some kind of gadget for this?"

"Sorry, Kim. I deal with science and facts, not magic."

"Well this magic IS fact!!" Kim dodged as a rock flew over her head.

"Sorry." Kim pounded her fist on the ground in frustration. She couldn't see any solution either. "Actually," she looked back at Wade, "you COULD use the Kimmunicator, but it's risky, and I'm not sure it would do any good, anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know I updated the Kimmunicator a few months ago..."

"Yeah?!" Kim started to get excited. Maybe Wade had put something in there that would save the day!

"Well, the power cell is a trilithium core, which is actually somewhat unstable. It's a VERY powerful energy source, but if exposed to intense heat it could cause an explosion as powerful as a nuclear blast... but without the radioactive fallout."

"And you've had me carrying this around in my pocket!?!?!" he winced at her tone

"It has to be an EXTREME temperature... over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit... so you'd probably be dead before it exploded anyway. But if you remove it, and can get it into the phoenix and hit it with, say, a LASER..." Kim's eyes widened.

"Shego! But, she's..."

"She's not dead. I scanned her vitals. You gotta wake her up."

"Ok. Wait...if it's as powerful as a nuclear blast..." Wade couldn't meet her eyes.

"Yeah... um, there's a good chance that you might not make it. You could!" he hastened to explain, "because though the intensity is nuclear-level, it has a very small radius." Kim thought for a moment.

"I don't really have much of a choice, do I?" Wade looked at her sadly. "If I don't, the world will end and everyone will die, including me. This way at least I'm the only one." She looked around her. "Well, me, Shego...Ron." She glanced at the two phoenixes. She knew Ron was in there somewhere, though it had been easier to just think of it as a godlike being...Shioa. Now, in the final moments, she didn't know if she could just sacrifice him like that. She, at least, had a small chance due to distance, but with the two energy creatures locked in their struggle, both would be destroyed by the blast. The ground rumbled beneath her, reminding her of the time. She looked back at Shioa...Ron. Both entities were present. Of course, she wasn't even sure if Ron was lost to her now. Even if the talisman had worked, would Ron have been returned safely? She tightened her lips, making her decision. Wade noticed her determination and swallowed hard.

"Ok, I'm gonna do it." Anything was possible, for a Possible, right? She would save the world and come back unscathed. She hoped.

"Well you better do it soon!" Wade pointed out. Kim glanced at her watch. Only 25 minutes to go!

"Right! Ok. Here goes nothing. Catch ya on the flip side." Wade saluted her, grinning sadly. Kim pulled the power cell out of the Kimmunicator and the screen went blank. She dropped the Kimmunicator on the ground and ran over to Shego, ducking the flying debris as they came her way. Reaching her one-time enemy's side, she shook her roughly.

"Shego? Shego wake UP!" The other girl groaned and blinked her eyes open. "Come on! I need you to shoot your lasers at this power cell when I throw it into the Phoenix."

"Wha...?" Kim shook her again.

"Shego! We don't have any time! The world is going to tear itself apart in less than 20 minutes! I'm going to throw this and when it gets near the phoenix you have to shoot your lasers so that it will explode and destroy him!"

"What happened to your talisman thing?" Shego sneered.

"It got destroyed. This is our only option!" Shego sighed and sat up, gingerly rubbing her head. Kim decided it would be better not to inform Shego of the magnitude of the explosion they were about to produce. They struggled to their feet and separated, Kim getting into a position where she could get the best aim, and Shego moving in the opposite direction so she could catch the power cell in a crossbeam.

"Please let this work!" Kim whispered. She pulled her arm back, made eye contact with Shego, making sure she was ready, then let the battery fly.

* * *

It was as if time stood still. In the midst of chaos everything hung suspended. Kim held her breath as the power cell drifted through the air. It was out of her hands, now, only Shego could destroy the creature. Kim blinked and glanced at Shego, just in time to see the evil Phoenix's wing lash out and knock her to the ground.

"NO!!" All time rushed back to its proper speed. The power cell began it's descent towards the Phoenix, and Shego lay motionless on the ground. Blaze stuck his head out of Kim's pocket and then covered his eyes, ducking back down. Kim had the fleeting thought that Shego's head injury had probably been too much for her to withstand the blow from the Phoenix. The tiny battery was nearing the ground, when movement caught Kim's eye. A shiny disk swooped in and blasted the power cell with it's guns. Without hesitating the craft zoomed on, catching Kim and Shego in some kind of tractor beam and puling them to safety as the trilithium core exploded in a fiery ball.

A few minutes later, as Kim stood on shaking legs, looking back towards the scene of the explosion, a sound behind her made her turn. The disk, which looked like the ship she and Ron had taken, was opening, and a mole rat was scampering out. Blaze, who had climbed out of Kim's pocket, let out a squeal and raced towards the newcomer. They chittered at each other for a moment, then the second one also squealed and they hugged. Kim shrugged, not understanding Kirrnan culture, and turned back... searching desperately for some sign that Ron had survived the carnage. She felt something tug at her leg and looked down.

"Oh, hey, Blaze." She thought he wanted to introduce her, but she didn't feel up to it. Then he tugged harder and the other mole rat chittered.

"Uh-uh!" She looked over at him.

"Blaze?" He wasn't the one pulling on her pants. The other one scrambled up her leg, up her side, and onto her shoulder.

"Hi!"

"R-RUFUS!?!" Kim couldn't believe it. They had believed that the ship had blown up, killing Rufus. But here he was, chattering on about not understanding the controls and sorry it took so long... it was hard to understand him. For some reason, the chairman had seemed to be the only Kirrnan who was able to talk very well. Kim hugged him, but her voice was caught in her throat. Rufus had returned to her alive, but her best friend may not have. Other Kirrnans were beginning to emerge and the councilman hurried over to her.

"It seems you are victorious, Kim Possible. The evil one has been destroyed... our scientists have confirmed it. The human, Monkey Fist, was protected from most of the blast by the being's energy field. He has been taken to our doctors for treatment."

"Monkey Fist is ALIVE?! That means...is Ron...?!" Kim could hardly dare to hope. The councilman looked away, and all her hope died.

"We were...unable...to locate Ron Stoppable. Shioa seems to have taken more of the blast, and we fear that...that is to say..." he broke off as Kim waved him away. Tears poured down her face. It wasn't fair! Monkey Fist had started this and he survived! Ron had tried to save the world! Wasn't he entitled to the same kind of miracle?!

"NO!" Kim lunged towards the chairman, but exhaustion caused her to fall. Holding herself up on her hands and knees by sheer will, she repeated softly, "no...no. She looked up. "I don't believe it! Monkey Fist survived and he was being used by the evil thing! You didn't find a body! He's out there! You're just not looking hard enough!" The Kirrnan leader simply looked at her sadly.

"You cannot possibly understand... the creature, it cared nothing for Monkey Fist. He was a tool, and no longer of any use. What reason, then, would there be to kill him? But Shioa, and hence your friend, was a threat, an enemy. If the evil one was going to die, it wasn't going to let Shioa live on victoriously." Tears poured down Kim's face. She clutched her stomach and shook her head violently as if that could ward off the words she didn't want to hear.

Rufus had listened to the exchange quietly, but now he slid down to the ground. He looked back at the battleground, still smoking. When he had finally managed to get the ship's systems to cooperate he had turned back towards Earth. He had contacted Wade, only to learn that within minutes the world would be destroyed if the phoenix wasn't stopped. Wade had seen Rufus as a chance to save Kim, and had explained what they were about to do. Rufus had sped towards the plains, seen Shego fall, and exploded the device himself, yanking Kim and Shego to safety as he went. But no one had told him that Ron had been in there somewhere.

"You!?" the chairman seemed to pale at the sight of Rufus. Rufus turned his questioning gaze towards him. "You have returned at last!" Rufus didn't understand what this mole rat was talking about. He had met the one with Kim, Blaze, he called himself, who had explained that all the mole rats were actually beings from another planet. But he had been born in captivity and never left Smart Mart until Ron had bought him.

"Huh?" He looked back at Kim, who was sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest, unaware of the world around her.

"You do not know?" the councilman seemed aghast. Rufus rolled his eyes and tried to move towards Kim... comfort of friends, and all that. But the councilman seemed intent on speaking with him. "You are the child of our most revered queen! She was visiting one of our sun-damaged colonies when you were born and you were captured by human scientists. We never gave up hope that you would one day return to lead us... and you have!" Rufus raised an eyebrow. He hated to disappoint the other mole-rat, but he didn't belong here. He belonged with Ron. Ron... who was no longer there...

"Wait until we tell the prince..." the chairman rambled on, but Rufus wasn't listening. He escaped and made his way over to Kim, needing the comfort of a familiar face.

"Hey Rufus." Kim seemed to barely acknowledge him as he climbed into her lap. She wiped away a tear, swallowing her dispair. Rufus put his little arms around her...at least as far around her as they could reach... and buried his face in her stomach. She absently stroked his head, each of them feeling a grief too powerful for words.

The next few hours flew by. The Kirrnans wanted to celebrate, but Kim and Rufus steadfastly refused. Finally the little beings seemed to realize that they would get no cooperation out of the two friends, and they let them go. As Kim boarded the ship that Rufus had driven to save the day, she noticed that a make-shift infirmary had been set up. In the beds lay Shego, Monkey Fist, and Drakken, who had been found unconscious about a mile away from the scene of the fight. It seemed he had been thrown that far when their hovercraft had been destroyed. Kim sat down and gave a half-hearted smile at Blaze, who had volunteered to take them home. Home. She had been gone for two days... yet it seemed like a lifetime. And she was going to have to tell Ron's parents... she pushed the thought away. She couldn't think of him right now. In fact, she didn't want to think at all. Rufua had struck up a quiet conversation with Blaze, and wasn't paying attention. So Kim pulled a sedative out of the infirmary's supply and injected herself with it. She couldn't take the pain anymore, and, as she slipped into a dreamless sleep, she welcomed the oblivion.

To be continued...


	11. Life Goes On

At first the voices were indistinguishable. As they slowly morphed into familiar tones, Kim rolled onto her side.

"Just five more minutes..." she mumbled inaudibly, thinking it was time for school. But the voices didn't leave her alone. They buzzed around her head like a swarm of bees, forcing her back to conciousness.

"Kim?" she opened her eyes, then just as quickly shut them again. The light was so BRIGHT!

"Uggh" she moaned.

"Kimmie, you need to wake up now, sweetie." This time when she opened her eyes she could make out a blurry form hovering over her.

"Mom?" The form split in two and cleared, showing both her parents' worried faces. She tried to sit up, but the room began to spin dizzyingly, leaving her more disoriented than she had been.

"Don't try to sit up yet. You're body's still recuperating from the drugs."

"Drugs?! What drugs?!! What happened!?" her parents exchanged a look that held a plethora of hidden meanings.

"Just try to relax, honey," her mom said gently. Kim supposed she should listen to her... after all she WAS a brain surgeon and would know about the effect of different drugs... but she had a strange feeling that she was missing something important. A little pink creature jumped up onto the table beside her bed and everything came rushing back in a terrifying tempest. Clutching her head, Kim tried not to cry out, but the pain was too unbearable.

"It's ok, sweetie, I know it hurts. Just let it out." Her mom rubbed circles on her back slowly, comfortingly. Kim threw her arms around her mom and began to cry.

"Mom! Ron... I... he..."

"Shhhh. I know." Kim continued to weep, oblivious to her parents, Rufus, or anything around her.

After Kim had cried herself back to sleep, her parents quietly left the room, shutting the door behind them. They made their way downstairs to the living room, where Ron's parents sat on the couch. When, earlier that afternoon, the strange flying saucer had landed in their yard, the twins had thought it was a great new toy. But Rufus and Blaze had exited the ship, locking it behind them, with a note to Ron's parents. They had composed it during the flight and typed it out so that the Stoppables could understand. Rufus had led Blaze into the Possible's kitchen, with the twins trailing behind them, curious to know what was going on.

Kim's mother had been cooking dinner when they entered, and, upon seeing TWO naked mole rats she had scolded the twins, playfully, about cloning experiments. But Rufus had scurried over to her and shown her the note and all playfulness had faded. She called her husband into the room, and he, after reading the note as well, called the Stoppables and asked them to come over. He hadn't mentioned the reason, for he knew they would need to hear it in person. While he contacted them, Rufus tugged on Mrs. Possible's leg, pointing out to the ship. She couldn't quite understand what he was trying to say, but she followed him. Inside they found Kim, unconscious, with a strong sedative syringe in her hand, as well as Monkey Fist, Shego, and Dr. Drakken still lying strapped in their medical beds.

Kim had been transferred to her own bed after being checked out by her mother. The police had been called to take the three supervillains, the twins had been sent to a friend's house, and Ron's parents had arrived, obviously worried from the serious tones of Mr. Possible's call. They had seen Kim being taken up to her room, and, as they waited, they had sat on the couch. Kim wouldn't wake from the drugged sleep for awhile, so her parents had joined the Stoppables in the living room. There Blaze and Rufus had shared their note, their story. Mrs. Stoppable had broken down in tears, and Rufus and Mr. Stoppable had tried to comfort her.

Feeling that the other couple needed some time alone, the Possibles returned to Kim's bedside to be there for her when she awoke. Now, after comforting their daughter, they returned to the living room. All was silent as the four adults each wrestled with their grief in their own way. They knew that the school would have to be notified, as well as a service set up, but for now, none of them felt up to it.

It was a few hours later when Kim emerged from her room. The Stoppables had left, gone home to make the necessary arrangements. Her parents looked at her strangely, unsure how to approach her. She flopped down on the couch and curled her knees up to her chest, staring into space. When she felt someone touch her leg she jumped, startled, nearly breaking the couch.

"R-Rufus?" she eyed the little mole rat confusedly. "What are you doing here?" Her mom stepped forward with an explanation.

"Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable wanted you to keep him. They..." she hesitated, "they felt he would remind them too much of... and he was really never THEIR pet, only..." she came to a stuttering halt. She was afraid to mention Ron, not knowing how Kim would react. Unfortunately being a brain surgeon didn't mean she understood emotions; she wasn't a counselor. Rufus looked up at Kim with trusting eyes. Eyes that seemed to say, "I need you now. There's no one else to take care of me." Of course, she could just be imagining it, she told herself... putting her own feelings into another...

"No." she whispered.

"What?" Her mother was afraid she was refusing to take care of Rufus, and she had hoped that the two of them would be able to comfort each other... both of them having been Ron's best friends.

"N-nothing." Kim shook herself slightly. Take care of her? That was definitely NOT her emotion. It must have really been there in Rufus' eyes. She reached over and gathered Rufus in a gentle hug. He clung to her, wishing he could do more to make her feel better, yet needing, at the same time, to find solace himself. She released him and brushed a tear off her cheek. Then she blinked. Why were there two Rufus'? Then she felt stupid as she recognized Blaze as he crawled up onto the couch as well.

"Blaze." She gave a weak smile. "Aren't you supposed to be back at the colony?" he shook his head.

"Uh-uh...NOPE! Stay here!" Kim raised her eyebrow, but mentally shrugged it off. Maybe Blaze could be a good friend for Rufus...she sure knew SHE wasn't going to be able to do a good job at it. All she could think about was Ron. She never realized how much he had meant to her. He had always been there for her, put up with her quirks, even as she had put up with all his wierdness. Of course, now, looking back, she saw all his strange peculiarities as part of what made her love him so much.

"What?!" she glanced at the two mole rats, who were deep in conversation, to see if they had noticed her voice the thought out loud. Love? Ron? Well, sure...as a best friend. But even as she tried to convince herself, the ache in her stomach was being replaced by an ache in her heart. She shook herself mentally. She was just reacting to his death. Didn't people always do that? They see the deceased person through rose-colored glasses... faultless and perfect. That was it. It had to be.

But as she climbed into bed a few hours later, Rufus curled up on an extra pillow on her nightstand, and Blaze asleep in one of her shoes (his idea, not hers), she couldn't quite ignore the little voice in the back of her head telling her that she had lost even more than she had realized.

* * *

"... and that is how the neoclassicism period in literature was marked by an increase in satirical writings." The bell rang, waking up the entire English class. "Don't forget your essays for next class on Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' and the pros and con's of eating one's young." Mr. Barkin called out as the students ran over each other in their haste to get out the door. Kim trudged towards her locker, alone in the sea of students. Since her return three weeks ago everyone had been walking on eggshells around her. Even Monique was avoiding her, and she couldn't blame any of them. She had only returned to school a week ago... her only other public appearance had been at Ron's memorial service. She rounded a corner and saw Josh Mankey talking to Bonnie. Bonnie was the one person who hadn't been acting different...she was just as self-absorbed as ever.

"Oh Josh, you're so funny!!" she gushed. She saw Kim out the corner of her eye and her smile grew even wider. "Of COURSE, I'd LOVE to go to the prom with you!" Kim stopped, surprised and confused. She was about to turn and walk the other way when Josh saw her.

"Kim!" he had the decency to blush. Kim raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "Um... I thought, like, you know, since... um... you wouldn't want..." she took pity on him and pasted a smile on her face. The truth was she wasn't really as upset as she should have been. The prom and Josh himself had lost their appeal to her... in fact, everything had in the last few weeks.

"It's ok, Josh. I'm not really feeling up to going, anyway." He gave her his classic heartthrob smile, but Kim was unaffected. She moved on, deciding to bypass her locker and head for home. She thought it was a better idea anyway...she wasn't ready to open her locker. She hadn't gone there since her return to school, fearful of the memories it would evoke. Also, Wade had tried to contact her numerous times, but she was ignoring him. She had written "return to sender" on the new Kimmunicator he had sent, she refused to open her locker, and she had told her parents not to give her the phone when it was for her.

"Hey Kim!" Jim piped up when she got home.

"We raided your room..." Tim added.

"And read your diary..."

"And took apart your radio for..."

"The rocket we're..."

"Building." No response. The twins' faces fell. They had been trying to get a rise out of her for the past week. It was just too weird for her not to be chasing them down for some indiscretion, screaming "tweebs" at them, and thereby showing the proper sisterly love.

"Nice try, kids." Mr. Possible walked through the kitchen on his way out the door. "I'm going to the store, want to come?" The twins scrambled to accompany him, hoping they could convince him to buy them stuff.

Kim, meanwhile, had returned to her room. Rufus and Blaze were nowhere to be found... it seemed they, too, had felt the need to be wherever Kim wasn't. She flopped down on her bed with a sigh. She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear her mom enter the room.

"Kim? KIM?!" she was startled out of her reverie by her mother's raised voice.

"Huh? What is it... what's wrong mom?" Dr. Possible rolled her eyes when she was sure Kim wasn't looking.

"Nothing's wrong, exactly... I have just been trying to get your attention for about five minutes!" she smiled a bit to let Kim know she was slightly exaggerating.

"Oh. Sorry." Kim let her gaze wander around the room, not really feeling like listening to her mother.

"Kim, I need you to pay attention." Kim grudgingly focused again on her mom. "Kimmie, I know these last few weeks have been hard on you... they've been hard on all of us. But your father and I are becoming worried about you." Kim stiffened. She wasn't sure what her mother wanted to say, but if she was bringing up Ron, Kim didn't want to hear it.

"Mom..." she began, but Dr. Possible cut her off.

"Kim I know you miss Ron. I know it hurts. But you can't give up living your own life. You haven't left the house except for school, you don't talk to your friends, I know you were planning on going to prom, but you haven't bought a dress..."

"What do you expect, Mom?! My best friend is DEAD! Ok? Gone! He's not coming back and it's MY FAULT!!!" she screamed the last few words, then paled. She buried her face in her hands. "It's my fault..." she whispered.

"Kim! It is NOT your fault! How can you think that!?"

"It IS! If I hadn't started the whole 'save the world' business, Ron would still be here! He'd..." she started crying and Mrs. Possible sat down next to her on the bed, hugging her close.

"Sweetie, if you hadn't started, Ron still wouldn't be here. You know that. Wade explained everything to us. And Rufus, and the other little mole rat...what's his name?"

"Blaze." Kim said quietly.

"Right, Blaze. Anyway, the world was going to be destroyed. If you hadn't interfered, everyone would be dead. Me, you, Ron. And all the other 6 billion people on this planet. So why are you punishing yourself for something that was beyond your control?" Kim shrugged, then shook her head.

"But I survived...I should have been able to save him too!" she angrily punched her pillow. Her mom looked at her sorrowfully. She was a brain surgeon. She could fix a brain so that the person who owned it could walk, or talk, or do any number of things they couldn't before. Her schooling had focused on anatomy and physiology more than anything else, but she had taken a few psychology classes. They were useful in diagnosing disorders of the brain sometimes. She recognized the survivors guilt in her daughter...it was obvious even to people without any psychological background. But all the classes, all her abilities to fix people, couldn't help her to "fix" her daughter's broken spirit.

"Honey, maybe it was just Ron's time to go." Kim tried to cover her ears, but her mother wouldn't let her. "His parents don't blame you. Ron wouldn't blame you. No one blames you but you. You never made Ron follow you on your missions, he made the choice on his own. And I think it's time you stop punishing yourself and start living again. Think about it. Ron wouldn't want you to shut yourself away like this. Would he? Tell me, what would he tell you to do if he was here now." Kim shook her head, tears pouring down her face.

"I... I don't know!" Her mom gave her a look that clearly said, "that's not good enough" and she thought for a bit. Memories that she had tried to lock away came flooding back. Ron and Rufus. Ron at Bueno Nacho. Ron at school, trying to get a date. Ron....

"He'd probably say I should go eat a naco in his honor or something." She said wryly. Dr. Possible nodded. Kim looked at her with a melancholy air. "But how can I go out and do something fun? How can I even pretend to be happy when he...he's..."

"It will take awhile, I know. But you'll see. Eventually you will be able to look back at your memories of him and smile instead of cry. Those we love never truly leave us, you know. But you can't forget them. By locking yourself away from the world you disrespect Ron's memory. Let him live inside you. Like you said, go to Bueno Nacho, talk to Rufus...he misses Ron too, you know... think about all the good times you had with him." Kim sniffed, then threw her arms around her mom, hugging her tightly.

"I love you, Mom." She whispered.

"I love you too, Kimmie." She got up and left the room, leaving Kim to think about what she had said. Maybe she WOULD go eat a naco. Or... she should find Rufus. She hadn't thought about how hard this all had been for him. Wiping the last traces of moisture from her face, she stood up and glanced outside. The sun was shining. Funny how she hadn't noticed earlier. The tightness in her chest was easing. It still hurt to think about Ron, but her mom was right. He wouldn't want her to stop living.

She thought about what her mom had said earlier. She HAD been planning to go to the prom...with Josh, but he was obviously not an option anymore. She thought back to the dances she and Ron had gone to together as friends and smiled a little smile. She could still go to prom...alone, or maybe take Rufus and Blaze, in a kind of remembrance of Ron. But first she needed to make peace with the living. Looking towards the future for the first time in weeks, she headed out towards the school, where her locker, and the Kimmunication system inside, was waiting for her.

To be continued...


	12. The Prince and the Paper

The zesty smells of Mexican food wafted through the air. Bueno Nacho had always been an afternoon hangout for many of Middleton's teenagers, but today the crowd was thin. Only one booth had anyone in it, and only one of the three occupants was human. Kim sat with Rufus and Blaze, enjoying the show as Rufus introduced his friend to the "naco", in fact any Mexican food, for the first time. The last two days had been difficult, but rewarding, for her as she began to return to a somewhat normal life. She was still refusing any missions, not that any big ones had come up... only smaller ones like getting kittens out of trees, but she had contacted Wade. Because they had never found Ron's body, she had had a faint hope that Wade could tell her he was alive...even though she knew he would have made that knowledge public as soon as he could. Instead he had verified that Ron's microchip had ceased transmission, which it would only do if Ron was no longer living.

Surprisingly, though, he had informed her that he had been at Ron's memorial. In person! She had been so distraught that she hadn't seen him. He told her it was ok, that he understood, and that being out of his room had actually not been so terrible... other than the fact that he was attending his friend's funeral. He had even said that he might not be adverse to leaving his house again sometime, maybe catching a movie or something with Kim.

Kim knew the younger boy had been trying to make her feel better, and it had worked. After talking to him, and agreeing to accept the new Kimmunicator next time he sent it, she had sought out Monique. They had talked for awhile, though they hadn't broached the still-painful subject of Ron. Monique had convinced Kim to go shopping for a prom dress with her, and the two of them had had a rather normal afternoon... Kim even going so far as to giggle at a few of Monique's jokes.

"Ta-da!" Kim's reverie was cut short by Rufus' exclamation as he finished preparing the naco for Blaze. She smiled down at the two naked mole rats... she really couldn't think of them as Kirrnans, besides, no one else would understand if she referred to them that way... grateful for their presence. Their funny antics helped her get through each day. She knew Rufus missed Ron, but, perhaps because he wasn't human, or perhaps he just coped better, he hadn't let Ron's death eat him up like she had. Maybe Blaze had helped... the two seemed to have become fast friends. As Blaze carefully tasted his naco, the Kimmunicator beeped cheerfully at Kim. She frowned a little...she didn't want to go on a mission. But she pulled it out, knowing Wade wouldn't leave her alone if she didn't answer.

"Hey, Wade." She purposefully left out her signature "what's the sitch" in hopes that he would get the hint that she wasn't going to take on any missions.

"Kim, you got a hit on your website, and..."

"Wade, I TOLD you, I'm not going to..." he cut her off.

"No, just listen!! You're not going to believe this!" her heart jumped. Could Ron...? "The head of the Kirrnan's council left a message on the website!"

"Huh?" Kim was disappointed, even though she told herself to stop getting her hopes up.

"Here." Wade hit some buttons and his image was replaced by that of the Kirrnan chairman.

"Kim Possible. Although I know your recent tragedy has probably left you with an unfavorable feeling towards our civilization, I must beg of you one last favor. Our crown prince has disappeared, and I believe he may be residing with you. I ask that you contact us so that we may verify his location and send someone to retrieve him." The image blinked off. Wade's face looked up at her, interested.

"Weird, huh?" Kim didn't answer. She had been in shock at the time but she seemed to remember Rufus talking to the chairman. She believed she had heard the word "queen" in their conversation. Could the chairman be speaking of RUFUS?! She looked down at the two creatures, now having a naco-eating contest. Or...no.

"Yeah... weird. Hey, Wade, let me get back to you on this, ok?"

"All right." The picture blinked off. Kim looked down again. Blaze was lolling on his back, his stomach swelling with all the Mexican food he'd eaten. She looked over to Rufus, who, likewise, was stuffed with nacos. She rolled her eyes and scooped both of them off the table, putting them into the special purse-like bag she had begun to carry with her, made to hold the two naked mole rats.

By the time she got home, both of them were starting to complain that they hadn't gotten enough at Bueno Nacho. Kim rolled her eyes, knowing that if she let them have their way they'd eat her out of months and months of allowance money. Rufus had already done so the one time she had "Rufus-sat" him when Ron went to Paris. She took them up to her room, closed the door, and deposited them on her bed.

"Ok, guys. I got this message on my website. Either of you care to explain?" she replayed the chairman's message, and both mole rats seemed to pale. They exchanged significant looks then glanced up at Kim with innocent expressions. They simultaneously shrugged, muttering 'I dunno'. Kim wasn't fooled.

"Don't give me that! You know something about this missing prince! I don't want to start some kind of war with a bunch of midget aliens!" Rufus grinned at this, grabbed a notepad, and drew a little maritian... one with a huge head, almond-shaped eyes, the classic alien look... with a ray gun. "Very funny." Kim said sarcastically. "Listen, Rufus, I was really out of it that day, but I know I heard the chairman say something to you...something pertaining to this message." She gave him a stern look, and he hung his head. He peeked at Blaze, who was scowling at the Kimmunicator. Rufus chittered at him and he shook his head violently. He muttered something back that Kim couldn't understand, and a fast, unintelligible argument began. She sat down to wait it out, looking at the pictures covering her dresser. All of them contained her and Ron, and she felt the familiar heaviness begin to seep into her heart.

"OK!" she was distracted by Blaze's outburst. She looked over at the bed, where Rufus and Blaze stood glaring at each other. She grimaced, hoping that she hadn't caused them to break apart their friendship. Blaze heaved a sigh and plopped down.

"Me." Kim was confused by the short statement.

"What do you mean, 'you'?" He rolled his eyes towards Rufus who shook his head and motioned for him to continue.

"The message was for me." Kim's eyebrows shot up. Blaze had always spoken like Rufus and the few workers that she had met in the colony. Now all of the sudden his English rivaled that of the chairman's. Her eyes widened as the importance of his statement sank in.

"You mean, you...you're...?" He rolled his eyes and nodded.

"I didn't WANT to be a prince," he pouted, "I was hiding with the workers when your and your friend Ron came to the colony. We all look similar enough that I was able to even go into the council with you without being recognized. No one ever really looks at a worker, anyway."

"But I thought the council..."

"It's like your British Parliament." Blaze explained, then shrugged. "I liked the name Ron gave me... you know that our society does not use names, but, rather, numbers. As a prince my number was always 1. The queen is 1. All members of the royal family have the same number! I was tired of being thought of like that. Your friend gave me the gift of individuality...for once I was special. Anyway, I got caught up in the action. Then when I saw that you were to be returned here, I saw my opportunity to visit America and escape my 'birthright'" he said it derogatorily, "by being the pilot. You know the rest." Kim sat back, stunned.

"Wow. And here I thought Rufus..."

"Oh, he is." Kim frowned, and Blaze and Rufus snickered, sharing a secret.

"My mother, the queen, was visiting another colony when my younger brother was born. The colony was raided by human scientists, and he was taken by mistake." He waved vaguely at Rufus. "I drove the council insane by always slipping off and disguising myself. When the chairman saw Rufus he hoped that he would take my place. But Rufus was smarter than that, weren't you!?" The grinned and Kim had to smile, too. Rufus had a brother...imagine that! Blaze lost his grin, then, sobering up.

"I guess this means I will have to return. I loathe the court, but maybe I can bring some 'American' ideas there. And the food." He rubbed his stomach. "I will HAVE to find a way to get Bueno Nacho into the colony." He scampered over to Kim's dresser and pulled out his flight suit. Reaching into the pocket he retrieved two miniature comlinks.

"Here." He handed one to Rufus. "I'll keep in touch." They hugged, Rufus crying at the loss of his new friend...and brother. Then Blaze punched some buttons and turned to Kim.

"You are most brave. Thank you for allowing me to remain here. My ship will arrive soon. Take care of my brother." He hopped off the bed and scurried down the stairs. Kim just looked after him, in astonishment.

"Well...that was...random." Rufus nodded his agreement. He stashed the comlink in Kim's bag and crawled up her arm to sit on her shoulder. They moved to the window to watch as Blaze boarded the small flying saucer and vanished. Rufus pressed his nose against the window until the vehicle was out of sight, then sighed.

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss him too." Kim said. "But at least you know where he lives! You can always visit." Rufus brightened a little at this and tugged at Kim's sleeve. "What?"

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm! Bueno Nacho!!" Kim sighed.

"Rufus! We just CAME from there!" He looked at her with a pleading expression, then jumped up and down, so excited, that she had to give in.

"All right. Bueno Nacho." She agreed. As they left the room, neither noticed the Kimmunicator, having fallen to the floor, begin to beep.

* * *

Kim and Rufus returned to her room only a little before midnight. Rufus immediately curled up on his pillow and fell asleep. Kim still had to write her English essay, so she got to work. She was so intent on starting her assignment she didn't see the blinking light on her Kimmunicator, indicating a message from Wade.

"Let's see...Swift...A Modest Proposal..." she began typing, but it wasn't long until fatigue claimed her and she fell fast asleep. The world grew dim and then exploded in a riot of color. Some part of her knew that it was a dream, but this information was drowned out by the action.

"KP!!" A familiar figure was running towards her, a huge grin on his face.

"Ron!" Kim's heart raced...he was ok! Yet as she watched the ground at Ron's feet opened up and swallowed him, leaving Kim to scream his name in vain. Suddenly a dozen monkeys of varying species and sizes erupted from the walls and launched themselves at her. As she fought them off she saw Bonnie laughing with glee at her predicament. The monkeys retreated, only to stand behind Bonnie, awaiting her instructions.

"Like, SO destroy her!" Bonnie pointed at Kim. The monkeys attacked again but Kim was unable to move. Her clothes had morphed into a formal dress, which hampered her movements. As she fell beneath the oncoming horde she was surprised to see one of the monkeys fly into the air and disappear. Suddenly they all began to fly in random directions, as if they were being thrown.

"You ok?" Kim couldn't see her rescuer...he was covered from head to toe in a black ninja suit. She nodded mutely, then got distracted as a group of leprechauns began to cook their children for dinner. Her mysterious visitor kicked the cauldron and the tiny people fled in all directions.

"Hel-lo?!" the ninja waved his hand in from of her face and she felt a strange sense of deja-vu, as if she knew this person in another life. "Kim?" she blinked at him... how had he known her name?

"Kim?! Kim! Wake UP!" she jumped a little as she awoke, her younger brothers staring at her with annoyed expressions on their faces.

"Huh?" she blinked stupidly at them.

"Mom said to wake you up."

"Yeah, she said you had had enough beauty sleep..."

"But we disagree..."

"Because you need a few...

"YEARS of it!!" they finished in tandem.

"Ha ha ha. If you two tweebs don't get out of my room, NO amount of beauty rest will be able to undo what I do to you!" she swatted at them and they ducked, surprised.

"Hicka-Bicka-Boo?"

"Hoo-shaw!!!!" They high-fived each other, glad to have the old Kim back, and ran out of the room laughing.

"Tweebs." Kim sighed. She looked at the clock and nearly had a heart attack. She was going to be late for school!! She was halfway out the door before she remembered her essay, and slapped herself on the forehead. "Well, there goes my English grade." She dashed back upstairs, deciding that what little she had gotten written would have to do. She printed the document, stuffed the papers in her bag, grabbed Rufus and ran out the door.

As she ran down the street she had a vague sense that someone was watching her, but a swift glance around showed her to be alone. She shrugged the feeling off as a remnant of her strange dream and made it into first period just as the bell rang.

To be continued...


	13. Tremors

"So, Kim, I heard you bought a dress for the prom." Kim rolled her eyes as Rufus popped his head out of his bag and glared at the newcomer.

"Yeah, Bonnie, so what?" Bonnie flipped her hair back and sniffed.

"Just don't think you can get Josh back. After the way you've been acting lately, I'm surprised they're even going to let you IN to the dance." She flounced away before Kim could respond. She slammed her locker shut, fuming.

"Blah blah blah." She mimicked sarcastically.

"Blah blah blah." Rufus repeated. Kim glanced down and smiled at him.

"You said it, Rufus! I mean, REALLY! She is SO full of it. Like I would WANT Jo-umph!" She stepped back and blushed, having run right into Josh. When she had seen Josh asking Bonnie to prom, the lack of anguish had made he realize that her feelings for him had disappeared long before this apparent betrayal, so it hadn't hurt as much as it could have. Not as much as, say, losing Ron... she shook the thought out of her head. Still, even though she didn't LIKE him like that anymore, his defection had bruised her ego.

"Hey Kim."

"Josh." He looked around, uncomfortable. Josh wasn't a bad guy, really...he just hadn't known what to do when Kim withdrew from the world.

"Listen, about the prom..."

"Hey, I really need to..." they both started speaking at once, and Kim felt herself blush. She mentally berated herself, for even if she didn't have FEELINGS for Josh, it was hard not to feel self-conscious in his presence.

"You go first!" she said quickly. He shrugged.

"Ok. Um...I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings? I mean, you were kinda not here, and..." she waved aside his apology.

"No big. Really. I wasn't up to it and you couldn't have been expected to wait and see if I would still want to go."

"But I heard..." this time he was the one to blush, and Kim barely restrained a giggle. Josh Mankey...nervous!?

"That I got a dress and was still going?" Kim smiled. "Yeah, but I'm kinda going alone...I mean, I always used to go with...I mean...you know..." Josh smiled in relief.

"I get it, like a memorial. That's real...poetic, ya know?" She nodded and they separated as the bell rang. She headed towards her last class of the day, English, dreading the return of the papers they had handed in two days before.

"OK people, listen up!" Mr. Barkin shouted out commands to the students as if he were still in the army. "I have your essays and I have to say I was greatly disappointed in most of them!" The class groaned. Mr. Barkin was subbing for the regular teacher who had left to have a baby, and his techniques left a LOT to be desired. He began passing the papers back, barking out names, and occasionally commenting on aspects of the various papers that he found to be the most unsatisfactory.

"Possible." Kim peeked up at him, knowing her paper had been horrible... it hadn't even been finished! "Nice touch, see my comments." Confused, Kim took her paper from him and stared rather dumbly at the big red A scrawled across the top. The bell rang and the class stampeded to the exit. Kim followed slowly, reading through her paper, and trying to figure out when and where it had been written...not to mention by whom?

"Hey Kim..." Kim glanced up. She had reached her locker and opened it without realizing it.

"Hey Wade. Do you know anything about this?" she held up the paper.

"Johnathan Swift...yeah, he was the satirist who wrote about the Irish eating their young as a way to..." Kim cut him off, frustrated.

"No! I mean, yes, that's what the essay was about, but that wasn't my question. I could have SWORN I only wrote a page and a half...I didn't even finish the main idea of my paper before falling alseep. It shouldn't have gotten me any more than a D, and that would have been pushing it. Yet here I have a five page essay with an A and Mr. Barkin's complements! What do you make of that?" Wade studied Kim's face for a moment.

"You know, I thought maybe you were handling this on your own, or keeping silent as some kind of protest, but now I think not."

"What...?"

"Kim, you never got my message the other night, did you?!" Wade accused. Kim frowned, trying to remember.

"What message?"

"I called to tell you about some strange reports going on in Middleton. When you never called back I figured you didn't want to talk about it."

"What reports? What are you talking about? You know I said I wasn't..."

"Yeah, I know...no more missions. But...

"No buts! I always said I wouldn't so the save the world thing without Ron! I don't even know if I COULD...I mean, remember when GJ tried to tell me my success was due to a 'Ron Factor?!' I mean, that's a little far fetched, but still..."

"Kim! I'm not trying to convince you otherwise...it's just that, well, this is truly creepy. It's like something out of a movie."

"Ok, Wade, you lost me."

"Take a look at this security footage." He pressed a button to bring up a film of the inside of the local Smarty Mart. At first nothing was happening, but then, after a few frames, the shelves began to shake and rattle, as if being affected by an earthquake. The time on the security footage read 10:37 PM

"O-Kay..." Kim drawled out, not sure what to make of it.

"Yeah, and it gets weirder." Wade switched the screen to an image of Bueno Nacho where the same thing was happening, yet this time the hour read 11:28 AM.

"So...someone's clock is wrong?" Kim asked.

"No. These were two DIFFERENT quakes! And the weirdest part is, no other buildings were affected. The tremors didn't extend beyond the grounds owned by each company" Kim thought for a minute.

"So what are you suggesting? That Middleton's got some kind of weird...I don't even know WHAT?!"

"I don't know. I've been running tectonic scans and geological experiments, but so far I haven't come up with anything." Kim frowned, then shrugged.

"There's not much we can do about it now, then, is there?" Wade looked like he wanted to continue, but he refrained. Kim glanced down in thought and saw that she was still holding her paper. She lifted it and flipped through it, wondering vaguely how it had gotten written. AS she came to the last page where Mr. Barkin had written his comments. As she read them, the frowned, confused.

"Wade? Do you know how my paper got written?" he shook his head. "Do you think it could have anything to do with the quakes?" Again he shrugged.

"I don't know. But all this...SOMETHING's going on." Kim glanced down at her paper. She remembered her dream with the faceless helper and shivered. She thought some more and then looked at Wade.

"Wade, I...I think..." she held the paper up for him to see.

"Possible, your paper is overflowing with grammatical and historical errors. But the theory you put forth reminds me of young Stoppable's writing style. In memory of your friend I have given you a higher score than is deserved. Don't let it happen again." Wade read off the paper. He met Kim's eyes, which were wide in her pale face.

"Wade, do you believe in ghosts?"

* * *

"Got you!"

"No way! I TOTALLY got you first!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!" the twins' squabbling could be heard from the kitchen as Kim and Rufus sat at the table having a video conference with Wade. Kim sighed.

"Hold on a sec, Wade, I gotta go kill the tweebs." She dashed into the living room, where Tim and Jim sat on the floor playing some kind of video game. Was that...Superman? Beating up Batman? Kim shook her head to clear it. She just couldn't relate to the ideas video game producers come up with.

"Take that!"

"Oh no you don't! Laser vision!!" Kim stepped in from of the TV.

"Hey!" the twins cried out in unison.

"Hey nothing!" Kim retorted. "You two are making WAY too much noise in here. Can't you go play in your own room?" The two boys exchanged looks, then grinned.

"Hicka-Bicka-Boo?"

"Hoo-Shaw!" They ran up the stairs and Kim turned off the television.

"That's better," she sighed as quiet descended into the house. She made her way back to the kitchen, where Rufus and Wade had begun an online game to pass the time.

"Ah-hah!" Rufus cheered as he beat Wade at the virtual contest.

"Don't you two start." Kim complained, sliding into her chair and taking the Kimmunicator from Rufus. The picture quickly switched to Wade's face.

"Sorry, Kim. So...what now?" Kim sighed and looked out the window. The town seemed so peaceful; she just couldn't reconcile the idea of a ghost...ESPECIALLY Ron's ghost...haunting Middleton.

"Why ask me? You're the genius...I don't really see how a ghost and earthquakes are related...actually, I really don't think it was a ghost." After her initial shock, Kim had tried to be more realistic.

"Well how else would you explain your paper?"" Kim shrugged.

"Well I don't know! I..." Wade cut her off.

"Well, did you notice anything unusual at all before, during, or after it happened?"

"Well since I don't know WHEN it happened I can't...wait. I was typing it and fell asleep. I only had time to print it when I woke up, so it must have been while I was asleep. I had the WIERDEST dream, by the way."

"Really? What was it about?" Kim gave Wade a funny look, confused.

"Wade, what does it matter? It was just a..."

"But it could have been more!" he interrupted. "A lot of paranormal activity is related to the brain and psyche. Maybe there's a clue in your dream!" Kim raised an eyebrow, not sure she was buying his theory, but decided it couldn't hurt.

"Well, it started out..." she told him of Ron's falling, of the monkeys and Bonnie, and how they changed into formal clothes, the leprechauns, and finally the mysterious visitor.

"Hmmm. Well a lot of that can be explained from recent events. Ron's death, obviously. The monkeys, well that could be left over psychic images from Monkey Fist back before the whole phoenix thing...or it could refer to your friend Josh, you know, how Ron always called him a monkey. And he IS going to prom with Bonnie, which would explain her and the formal clothes. I don't know what was with the leprechauns, but when they tried to eat their kids that was obviously from your essay project. I guess the only mystery there is the ninja. You don't know who he was?" Kim shook her head, amused at Wade's insistence on picking apart every little detail.

"Wade, it was just a dream. Like you said, everything can be explained."

"But..."

"No, we just need to find another avenue to search." Kim purposefully pushed aside the memory of how she felt she was being watched after she left her house the morning after her strange dream. She didn't believe in ghosts and she didn't believe dreams had any hidden meanings.

"Ok, but I still think there's a link...somewhere." An alarm started beeping off screen and Wade turned away for a moment. "Kim! We may have a chance to find out what's going on! Weird things are happening down at the school right now!" Kim remembered that the decorations for prom were being put up that night.

"I'm on it!" She jumped out of her chair and ran out the door, only to return seconds later to retrieve an annoyed Rufus from the table.

"Sorry, Rufus. I'm still not used to taking you everywhere!" she apologized.

"S'ok" he mumbled as he grabbed onto her hair to keep from falling off her shoulder as she once again ran out the door. They reached the school in record time and Kim pulled out the Kimmunicator.

"Ok, Wade, where's the trouble?"

"All over the place!"

"Huh?" Kim opened the door, then quickly fell back and shut it again. "Whoa. Talk about crazy!" She peered through the small window on the door to try to get a better look. Inside, the lockers were opening and shutting, seemingly on their own. Papers were flying every which way, and the lights flickered on and off. Kim tried a different entrance, near the gym, and had to stifle a laugh at the scene inside.

"Get me down!" Bonnie, who had insisted on being head of the decorating committee, was hanging on for dear life to one of the rafters. She noticed Kim peeking in the door and yelled even louder. "Kim! This is all YOUR fault!" Kim ignored her and checked out the rest of the room. Most of the decorations were intact...the theme this year was a tropical paradise. Fake palm trees glittering with white Christmas lights were piled in one corner, while wall hangings of sunsets and ocean views littered the ground. The only destruction she could see was where a large paper maché monkey had been torn off of one of the palm trees and ripped to shreds. All that was left was half its head, rolling back and forth in place.

"O-Kay." Kim looked down at Rufus, who shrugged. Some of the other students were setting up a ladder for Bonnie, and Kim decided now would be the best time to make her exit. She hurried into the main part of the school, noticing that the chaos had subsided. She heard the familiar jingle and switched on her Kimmunicator.

"Kim, what's happening there?" Kim shrugged.

"I can't really say. It's all over, now. But..." she hesitated.

"What?"

"Well, Bonnie got stuck on the ceiling and a fake monkey was destroyed." Wade gave her a knowing look as she avoided meeting his eyes.

"What? That's weird...I'm telling you, Kim, there's no question... there HAS to be a connection to Ron. Maybe it IS Ron's ghost. Why else would everything happen at places he liked or to things he hated? The monkey, Bonnie, Bueno Nacho...."

"Wade, I don't think..." she was cut off as the ground beneath her began to tremble and heave. "Hold that thought!" Kim tried to steady herself, but ended up falling as the ground continued to shake. As the concussions receded Kim looked about the hall.

Middleton High looked like a war zone. Everywhere in the hall debris were scattered about... chunks of the ceiling had caved in, bits of dry wall and numerous papers had fallen from the walls, and locker doors hung crookedly on their hinges. Kim pushed herself from the floor where she had fallen during the earthquake. She glanced around, making a cursory check that there was no one nearby who was hurt, then picked up the Kimmunicator.

"Talk to me, Wade." Wade, for his part, was typing furiously away at his keyboard, glancing between three different monitors as he worked.

"Uh...." He grabbed up a printout and scanned it quickly. Kim looked up at the sound of feet, only to relax as a few of the decorating committee ran past on their way out of the building.

"Well?"

"Hold on!" Wade made a few adjustments and then looked up. "um, Kim... I'm afraid I have some bad news."

To be continued...


	14. Readying the Defenses

Thunder echoed in the distance as Kim exited the school. After a more thorough investigation, the damages done to the building were shown to not be extensive enough to close the school, at least not for an extended amount of time, or even put off the dance on Saturday. Kim hurried down the street, looking for some place away from prying eyes and ears, somewhere where she could talk to Wade in private. 

"Ok, Wade," she said quietly, slipping behind a tree in the deserted park, "what's going on?" He looked at her with such a solemn expression that she sat down, readying herself for the worst.

"According to my scans, the earthquake wasn't natural."

"Yeah, I figured that much," Kim said wryly.

"Yeah, well, like the others it seems to have been restricted to the school and school grounds. There weren't even any aftershocks in the nearby neighborhoods." Kim looked back toward the school.

"So...any idea on what's causing it?" she knew she had sworn of the "saving the world" thing, but this was hitting too close to home.

"That's just it... I still can't find any cause. The epicenter was in the same hall you were in. The tectonic readings I have don't show any fault lines...they didn't even register the quake!"

"Your sensors didn't find ANYTHING?" Kim asked skeptically.

"Not that I can see. I..." a beep was heard from off screen and Wade turned away for a moment. He continued to talk, though his head was no longer in the picture. "Kim, I just got some data about activity..."

"Movement? The quake?" Kim cut in.

"No...deeper. Pressure is building inside the Earth's crust...and..." he came back on screen and typed some commands into his machine.

"Pressure?" Kim interrupted as he worked, "Like a volcano?" She remembered all the disaster movies that had come out a few years ago about volcanoes that demolished unsuspecting towns.

"No, Kim, not like a volcano..." he finally looked at her, his expression solemn. "These readings are almost identical, although weaker, to the ones I got from..." he paused, unwilling to continue.

"What!?" Kim almost shouted, tired of being kept in suspense.

"They're like the ones I got from the phoenix." As the implications of his words sank in, Kim's blood drained from her face.

"No." the word was whispered, but Wade understood all the emotions that had gone into it. Dread, anger, and...of course, anguish. If the phoenix had survived, if the world was still in peril, then Ron's sacrifice had been in vain.

"Kim...KIM!" Wade had to repeat himself a couple times before Kim heard him. She blinked dumbly at him, her mind too caught up in reliving the agony of Ron's death to fully function. "Kim, listen to me. We don't know what's going on yet. Don't go all zombie on me again! I'm going to run more tests, see if you can get Rufus to contact the...Kirrnans?... to find out if they know anything, and I want you to get some sleep." Kim came out of her semi-trance at that.

"What? I don't think so! I can help...I can..." Wade cut her off.

"Kim, if something's going down I'm going to need you rested and ready to fight. There's nothing you can do right now, so get yourself some sleep, recharge your batteries." Rufus had poked his head out of his bag at the mention of his name and now crawled up Kim's arm to look into the Kimmunicator.

"Huh?" he wasn't sure what was going on, but he wanted to help if something was wrong.

"Rufus. Can you contact your brother? We need to know if his people know anything about the earthquake...and the phoenix." Rufus' eyes widened. Wasn't the phoenix dead? What was going on? But he nodded and hopped back down to his bag, rummaging around to find his little comlink. Kim sighed.

"All right. Catch ya later." The screen went blank and Kim picked up Rufus in his bag and headed home. As she entered the house, she wondered where everybody was. The glare from the TV drew her attention and she veered toward the family room. Her parents were asleep on the couch, the tweebs snuggled together on the floor. Kim smiled and turned off the television, leaving her family asleep. At least SOMEBODY was having a night free of care. She crept quietly up the stairs to her room, shutting the door behind her.

"Ok, Rufus, do your thing." She wasn't going to sleep until she found out a little more. He was still rustling around and she feared for a moment that he had lost it, but he grinned at her and held up his comlink in triumph. He messed with some buttons on it and it emitted a loud squeal. Both Kim and Rufus put their hands over their ears, which caused Rufus to drop the comlink. The noise stopped and a voice could be heard on the other end.

"Hello?" rufus grabbed the device and started chittering away madly. Kim watched, hoping the being on the other end...Blaze?... could understand his mumblings.

"Ok." He looked up at Kim and held out the comlink.

"What?" He rolled his eyes. "They want to talk to me?" He nodded vigorously and she took the tiny machine between to fingers. She looked at it dubiously, then shrugged.

"Hello?" she asked tentatively.

"Kim Possible?" she wasn't sure if the voice belonged to Blaze or the chairman, but it was a Kirrnan who spoke well, and she sighed in relief.

"Yes. I'm here."

"My brother has told me there is a fear that the...the phoenix we battled was not vanquished after all, is this correct?"

"I'm afraid so. Wade has some readings that he says match those given out by the phoenix." There was silence on the other end of the line, and Kim waited for his reply anxiously. Blaze answered.

"I have consulted with the council and our historians. They agree that the evil one may not have been destroyed as we had thought. Since it was not trapped with our magics, but killed by your technology, we are unsure as to what truly happened. The histories do give us this information, though... the evil one was using a human, Monkey Fist, wasn't it? as its corporeal form. Your blast may have only injured it enough to force it to abandon this form, hence returning Monkey Fist alive, to escape into a pure energy state, in which it could have survived."

"But...if it could survive, especially after taking such a beating, why couldn't our phoenix, Shioa...Ron...likewise survive?" Kim asked, frustrated. Blaze was silent again and she nearly growled with impatience.

"Um...we have conferred again and we have come to a conclusion."

"Blaze, I think I liked you better when you barely mumbled words like Rufus." Kim sighed. She wasn't sure, but she thought she heard a little laugh before Blaze cleared his throat again.

"I must speak as tradition and formality require," he replied with no little irony. "Anyway," he said, slipping into a less formal tone that he had become accustomed to hearing with Kim, "we think that Shioa was unable to survive the blast because of its inherent goodness."

"I don't get it." Kim said, puzzled.

"Well, the evil being could draw energy and strength from our planet...also it could dispense of its host in order to escape the blast itself. The host would have been in danger, and it was pure luck that Monkey Fist survived...he did survive?" Blaze couldn't recall, as he had been more interested in learning the American lifestyle and getting to know his brother.

"Um, yeah. Though I think he's still laid up in the prison hospital wing."

"As I thought. Shioa, on the other hand, was good. He would not harm our planet by drawing its resources to him, and he would not risk his host to save himself. If he believed that he could survive the blast, he would have tried to shelter your friend. In the end, it was proven to be the wrong choice." The sadness in Blaze's voice gave away how close he had become to Ron in the short time he had known him.

"Ok...so what can we do about it?" Kim didn't want to talk about Ron anymore. She had searched every avenue left to her, and none remained open...Ron was never coming back.

"Our scientists have been developing a device, one that was not finished a few weeks ago, but should be operational within twenty-four hours, which can fixate on energy and, by sending an opposing current through it, neutralize that energy. In short, it should be able to destroy the creature."

"Well, here's hoping." Kim said goodbye and gave the comlink back to Rufus, who chatted some more with his brother. She sat on her bed, lost in thought, until fatigue caught up with her and she fell asleep.

* * *

"Aw, man!" Kim rolled her eyes at her little brother's complaint. The whole family, excluding Kim, of course, had ended up sleeping all night in the living room. Now they were rushing to get to work and school on time and the twins were complaining about the aches in their necks. Kim passed into the kitchen, grabbing a muffin on her way out.

"Kim, wait!" she paused at the doorway and turned back to face her mom, a questioning look on her face. "Your school was cancelled today, it was on the news...something about an earthquake?" Her mom sounded confused, but Kim didn't have time to explain it to her.

"Ok, thanks, mom!" she continued out the door, heading towards Bueno Nacho. Blaze had contacted Rufus early that morning and informed him that the device was ready. He had promised to deliver it himself, but he wanted some nacos to take back with him. As she reached the restaurant, she didn't see any sign of the Kirrnan prince, so she ordered some food for Rufus, and some extra for Blaze, and sat down to wait. She hadn't heard from Wade, yet, and she had to controll the urge to beep him every few minutes to get an update.

"Ta-da!" Kim looked up to see Blaze enter the building holding what looked like a CD player above his head. Rufus squeaked and hopped down, rushing over to his brother.

"Hey, Blaze." Kim smiled at him and helped the two back up onto the table. Both Rufus and Blaze immediately dug into the food with gusto and Kim shook her head. "Um, guys? Gu-uys?" They looked up in some annoyance. "Yeah, look, I know your food is important to you, but could we have an explanation of this device first?" Blaze grinned sheepishly.

"Ok." The weapon was actually rather simple to operate...it had only two buttons. The first button, a pretty blue one, was to be used to find the frequencies and polarizations of an energy source...in this case the phoenix. The second button, a vivid fuchsia, was for sending the opposing energy into the source and destroying it. Just as Blaze finished his short demonstration, the Kimmunicator beeped.

"Finally!" Kim pulled it out. "What's the sitch, Wade?" Wade paused, taken aback by the no-nonsense tone. He hadn't seen this side of Kim since before....well, before everything had happened.

"I still haven't managed to lock down a single location... have you met with your friend yet?" Kim nodded, pointing the Kimmunicator at the two brothers busily chomping away on nacos. Kim had informed Wade of the Kirrnan's device the night before.

"It's not going to be much use without a target, though." Kim warned. Wade gave a kind of half smile.

"Yeah, I know. My computers are crunching away at the data as fast as they can. I'll let you know as soon as I have a projected location." Kim sighed as Wade's image disappeared. Why couldn't her life be normal for once? She left Rufus with Blaze and walked towards the school. Crews could be seen trying to get everything fixed in time for prom the next day. Kim sighed again. It looked like she was going to miss out on another school dance.

She spent most of the day with Rufus and Blaze, trying not to think about the phoenix growing stronger, causing chaos, and destroying the world. It was hard not to call Wade every three minutes, so she locked her Kimmunicator into receive only mode. She could send messages if she wanted, but it would take about three minutes to unlock it. This way she was less tempted. When night began to fall Blaze looked up sadly.

"I must return. My people will be worried about the creature." He and Rufus said their good-byes and he hopped back into the ship, which they had moved into Kim's back yard. As Kim and Rufus watched him take off, they heard Kim's mom calling her in for dinner.

"Yay!" Rufus scurried into the house, but Kim hesitated. She looked up into the night sky, losing herself in the infinite space and the beauty of the stars. She rarely took time to just enjoy life, and, what with Ron's death and her own possible impending doom, she soaked up the ambiance. Her mom called again and she hopped up and ran inside, knowing that time was running out.

To be continued...


	15. Prom!

Beep-beep-de-deep! Kim awoke with a start. She grabbed at her Kimmunicator, but, in the dark, she missed and ended up knocking it across the room. It continued to chirp away merrily as she felt around for the light and flipped the switch. She had to blink a few times at the sudden influx of light, then spotted the device laying on the floor and she dove after it.

"What's the sitch, Wade?" His face was worn; it seemed he had been pulling an all-nighter, but he gave a weary half-smile. "Do you have a location?!"

"Sorry, Kim. I haven't been able to pinpoint an energy frequency to track the phoenix with. Actually, the tremors and other readings have decreased. There is the possibility that we are dealing with a phantom... just aftereffects of the phoenix's powers." Kim sighed and gave a small smile.

"So all this worrying may have been for nothing?" Wade shrugged.

"I guess so. We still need to be alert, but we can probably relax a bit, get on with our daily lives..." he got a mischievous look in his eye and added, "Don't you have a dance to go to tonight?" Kim looked at her clock and moaned.

"Wade, that would be tonight...as in, like, 20 HOURS from now! Did you HAVE to wake me up at two A.M. to tell me to fade to yellow alert?"

"Sorry," though he didn't sound incredibly remorseful. She shrugged and signed off. She put the Kimmunicator back on her dresser and turned off the light. Rufus hadn't moved at all...in fact, he had slept through the whole thing.

"Good thing I'm not relying on you to wake me up." Kim muttered, fondly annoyed. She sank back onto her bed and was soon asleep.

It was the warmth of the morning sun on her face that woke her a few hours later... the sun, and the fact that the tweebs were running around downstairs making all kinds of...

CRASH!! ...noise. Kim groaned. She had forgotten that her parents were going to a company picnic for the space center today, which meant she was in charge of the twins until they got back! Another crash sounded, followed by two voices in unison proclaiming it "coooool!" Kim struggled out of bed and glared at the door, as if that could control them. When all the noise suddenly ceased she blinked, then jumped into action, running down the stairs, desperate to stop whatever destruction they were planning now. She found them outside, setting up a launch pad, and preparing to fire off another of their home-made rockets. Unfortunately Rufus was sitting in a make-shift cockpit.

"Stop this instant!" Kim lunged at the twins, narrowly missing Tim as he jumped out of the way and tossed the control to Jim. Kim stood with her hands on her hips and glared at them. "You two are SO busted!" She stalked over to the rocket and retrieved Rufus, ignoring his squeak of protest. Then she flipped over the tweebs and snatched the control away from Jim, catching him by surprise.

"Aww, man!"

"You're no fun!" Kim gave them a satisfied smirk.

"That's right. I'm no fun. Now scram!" They glanced at each other, then got a wicked gleam in their eyes.

"Hickabickaboo?"

"Hoo-shaw!" They scrambled back into the house and Kim sighed. Rufus had pulled himself out of her grip and jumped to the ground. He chittered at her, scoldingly, and shook his fist.

"Sorry Rufus. But you don't know that it wasn't going to blow up!" He pouted and she knelt down to try and see him face to face. "Come on, you can't stay mad at me forever!!" He looked like he planned to do just that, so she added, "Ok, if that's the way you want it. I WAS going to go to Bueno Nacho, but..." He grinned and leapt at her, catching hold of her shirt and climbing up to her shoulder.

"I take it that you forgive me?" Kim asked wryly.

"Mmm-hmmm! Lessgo!" Kim looked back at the house, remembering the Tweebs. She sighed, knowing that she would have to take them with her. She entered the house cautiously, sure that they had set out a booby-trap of some sort, but was surprised to find everything quiet. She did a methodical search of the entire house, but found no sign of them.

"Oh no." Kim grabbed her Kimmunicator and switched it on. Wade's picture appeared, though he was obviously startled.

"Kim! What's wrong?" Kim rolled her eyes. She hadn't meant to look so panicked, but then again...

"The tweebs escaped."

"I beg your pardon?" Wade blinked. Kim had to stifle a giggle. He was confused...good. Served him right for waking her up in the middle of the night.

"The twins. I was babysitting and they escaped and are even now, I'm sure, set to wreak havoc on the entire tri-city area!" Wade relaxed and shook his head.

"Kim, I hardly think they could..." Kim raised an eyebrow and he stopped short. "Ok, I meant I don't think they WOULD..." he again broke off as Kim shook her head in a pitying manner. He huffed, annoyed. "FINE! They could and would wreak havoc, ok?" Kim just smiled sweetly.

"Do you know where they are?" Wade thought to give her a little of her own back...

"Now, Kim, I'm sure I could try to locate them, but it might take awhi..." Kim just looked at him calmly. He sighed. It could be really frustrating having someone know you so well.

"Ok! Ok! They're at Middleton Mall." He refused to outright admit that they were microchipped, but he knew Kim knew anyway.

"Thanks, Wade! You rock!" Kim grabbed her bag, Rufus clinging to the strap and trying desperately to get inside so he wouldn't be left behind, and ran out the door. It only took a few minutes to reach the mall, and she pulled out the Kimmunicator to check the map once they arrived. She followed the signal to the electronics store, where Jim and Tim were blowing their combined allowances...for the past two years... on some impressive looking equipment. Kim leaned against the doorframe and waited.

"Thanks! Come on Ti...Oops!" Jim stumbled to a stop, causing his twin to run into him from behind.

"Hey! What're you...oh. Uh-oh." Kim just smiled at them as they realized they'd been caught. She straightened and moved towards them.

"Uh-oh is right.... You guys are s...."

"SOOO BUSTED!" The twins finished for her. "Yeah, yeah, we know." She just raised an eyebrow. She had been all ready to let them have it, but the dejected slump of their shoulders stopped her. She found herself studying them. She loved her family, including her brothers, but she usually spent more time avoiding them or yelling at them than anything else. They WERE tweebs, she reminded herself, but, she realized, they were also people. A brief image flitted through her mind of two large, grown-up twins saving the world. She blinked, wondering where that had come from. She smiled wryly.

"Well," she let the word hang in the air, enjoying watching them tense up. She loved them, but she wasn't about to stop tormenting them...any more than they were about to stop annoying her. But Ron's death had made her realize how important it was to let people know how she felt about them. She shook herself mentally, chasing away the depressing thoughts. She turned and walked a few steps out of the shop. She turned and grinned at the confused expressions on the twins' faces.

"So you guys coming or not?" The boys glanced at each other, messages passing unspoken between them.

"Um, aren't you gonna..."

"...chew us out or something?" Kim shrugged.

"Nah. I forget sometimes that I used to be ten. I was heading over to Bueno Nacho, wanna come?" The twins exchanged looks again, then grinned.

"Sure."

* * *

"...so then we thought that we could put the stabilizer on the SRB, but..."

"...that wouldn't work because it comes off, so we..."

"...put it on the body of the craft, but the attitude was off, and it crashed."

"Yeah, but we figured out that it was the wrong pitch and adjusted for it, and so..."

"...we needed the parts to rebuild and test it." Kim just shook her head in amusement. She and the twins sat in a booth at Bueno Nacho as the two boys enthusiastically explained their latest project. For her part, Kim didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about, but it was nice not to be fighting with them for once. Rufus, to give his input to the scientific discussion, was downing another tray of nachos at close to the speed of light.

"Hey, Kim! Can we..."

"...get some more nachos? Rufus ate them all!" Kim forked over a few bills and the twins raced each other to the counter.

"You really should save some for everyone else." She murmured to Rufus. He looked up at her and grinned, not remorseful in the least. She was about to admonish him some more when her Kimmunicator beeped. "Hey Wade, what's up?" She couldn't quite keep the concern out of her voice.

"Don't worry. It's nothing important...not related to the you-know-what." Kim relaxed and glanced over to where the twins were trying to build something out of straws. "I just wanted to let you know that all the tremors and strange readings have stopped. I think it really must have been some kind of aftershock."

"Weird for it to be so isolated, though, isn't it?" He nodded.

"Yeah, but who can explain magical phenomena? I certainly try to avoid it!" She laughed and signed off. Glancing at the clock she realized that her parents should be home soon. It was time to go, anyway. The twins were now really starting to make a mess and she didn't want to get in trouble. Besides, she needed to get ready for Prom. Monique was going to meet her at her house around five and they were going over to the school together. The work crews had cleaned up all the damage, and the decorating committee had redecorated the gym.

"Come on, tweebs!" they groaned and complained, but good naturedly. As they made their way home, Kim reflected that it was turning out to be a pretty good day. It wasn't, of course, to last.

When she got home she discovered that her dress had a flaw...one of the seams hadn't been sewn properly, and was beginning to come apart. She managed to sew it back together, but it took time out of her schedule; time she really couldn't afford. Monique arrived right at five, but Kim still hadn't gotten her hair fixed or her makeup on. The tweebs, deciding that they had behave too well that morning took it upon themselves to torment her while she prepared, thus unraveling her already frayed nerves.

"Auugh!" she threw her hands into the air, startling her mother, who was trying to arrange a nice hairstyle.

"Kimmie!" She groaned at the repremand.

"Come ON, mom! Can't you yell at THEM? They're the ones messing everything up!"

"Now Kimmie, your brothers are just a little hyper, that's all." Kim groaned again, seeing that it was hopeless to expect the twins to get in trouble. It didn't help that Monique laughed at her brothers' antics.

"Come on, girl, chill! It's not like we're going to miss anything!" Kim grumbled at her friend's cheeriness.

"We might."

"Nah, you know these dances don't get started until an hour or so into them anyways." Kim had to accept defeat. She knew Monique was right, she was just antsy for some reason. She didn't know why, but she felt as if the air was charged, as if energy was building up inside her. Something was happen tonight...she could feel it.

"Wade!" she grabbed her Kimmunicator, disrupting her mother's efforts again. "Is there..."

"Kim! Calm down! I don't know what you're so worked up about! There's been no change in my readings...not since last time you called, five minutes ago, or the time before that, or the time before that! No change since early this morning!" Kim smiled wryly.

"Ok, ok. I know. Sorry, Wade."

"No problem. Just don't call again unless it's an emergency, ok? I'll call YOU if there's any change." She nodded reluctantly and finally sat still so her hair could get completed.

"Girl, you look totally fabulous!" Monique gushed an hour later as they finally left the Possible house. It would have taken only half an hour to put on her makeup, had the twins not decided to sabotage her lipstick with purple Kool-aid. It had taken forever to get the stain off and then reapply all her makeup. But she had finally done it and they were on their way.

"Yeah? Well you don't look so bad yourself!" Kim answered cheerfully, her good humor quickly returning. They reached the school to find the dance well under way. Couples were dancing or talking or just hanging out in groups with their friends. There were two tables loaded down with food, and a live DJ so that songs could be requested.

"Hey Monique!" Kim saw Monique's date waving at them and motioned for her friend to go on.

"You sure?" Monique had convinced Todd to let her arrive at the dance with Kim, she was half-afraid Kim would back out at the last minute, but she felt a little guilty abandoning her friend now.

"Yeah, go on. I'm just going to check out the food anyway. I've been so busy I didn't eat dinner!" With a smile and a wave Kim headed towards the refreshment table, leaving Monique free to join Todd and his friends. Kim stood back, apart from the crowd, just watching all the other students. They all looked so happy. She had to laugh when she saw Tara and her date trying to swing dance. And...

"Kim." She turned to face Josh, surprised.

"Hey Josh....um, aren't you here with Bonnie?" She glanced around, positive that Bonnie would be stalking over any minute to reclaim her date.

"Yeah, but someone spilled punch on her and she went home to change." Figured. Kim shook her head wryly of COURSE Bonnie would have an extra dress at home. The only surprise there was that she hadn't brought it with her. She choked on her drink, as the thought hit her and made her laugh.

"You ok?" she coughed a few times, then smiled, still giggling a little.

"Yeah, I just...never mind." They stood there for a minute in awkward silence.

"You...you wanna dance?" Josh hesitantly asked. Kim almost accepted, but the song changed to a slow tune, and she really didn't want to slow dance with Josh. It wasn't just that he had, in a way, dumped her for Bonnie, and it certainly wasn't the fact that if Bonnie found out she'd be furious. In fact, that would be a good reason TO dance with Josh. But something inside her just wasn't up to the task, and she shook her head slowly.

"No thanks. I'm probably not going to dance a lot this evening anyway." She smiled at him to take any sting out of her rejection, and watched him as he nodded and walked away into the crowd. Monique threw her an odd look, but Kim just shrugged at her. She maneuvered over to an empty table and opened her purse to let Rufus out. She knew that he really wasn't technically supposed to be there, but she needed SOMEone to talk to all evening. He grinned up at her, wearing a little black bow tie, and then dug into her food.

She was just starting to relax when her Kimmunicator beeped. Feeling a cold sense of dread wash over her she pulled it out.

"What's up, Wa..." she never finished her question, and Wade didn't bother answering, because it was quite obvious by that point what was "up". The floor to the gym was shaking, another earthquake, it seemed, and the students were panicking. Unfortunately the tremors were forceful enough to ward the door frames, effectively locking all the people inside the gym. The Kimmunicator fell forgotten from Kim's hands as, in the center of the room, an eerie glow had begun to shine, growing larger by the second. A glow that was so unique, it could only come from one source.

The phoenix was back.

To be continued...


	16. Finale

"Kim! Kim!! What's happening?!" Kim was only vaguely aware of Wade's voice, calling to her from the floor where the Kimmunicator had fallen. The light was mesmerizing. Rufus squeaked and leapt to her shoulder, burying his face in her neck. The contact jolted her out of her stupor and into action. Grabbing on to Rufus so he wouldn't fall, Kim back-flipped over the table and pushed it over onto its side to form a sort of barrier. She reached around the edge to grab the Kimmunicator and then crouched down with her back to the table.

"Wade, what's going on?!" He shook his head.

"I was going to ask you the same thing. All my sensors just went crazy, so I called you to let you know. What's going on there?" Kim peered around the table. The phoenix hadn't taken on a solid form yet; it just hovered in the middle of the gym, a soft, pulsating glow. Every once in awhile it would tremble more violently, causing a new round of tremors to rock the building.

"I...I am SO not sure." Kim answered, returning to her previous position. "It's the... the..." she broke off, not sure she really wanted to say the words aloud. She felt that if she didn't say it, it wasn't happening.

"The phoenix?" Wade asked quietly. She nodded mutely and both of them took a minute to absorb the new information. "Do you have the Kirrnan weapon with you?" Kim's eyes widened and she grabbed her purse.

"I don't know! I planned on bringing it, but I don't remember..." she broke off as she dug through her purse desperately. Finally she stopped and fell back against the table. "Wade... it's not in there." She whispered. He closed his eyes briefly to gather his thoughts and Kim mentally kicked herself. There was no way she could get out of the gym, back to her house, retrieve the device and get back to the school in time. Heck, she wasn't even sure she could get out of the gym!

"Kim, I'll check for other ways out of the school...I think..." she sat up, something catching her gaze. "What is it?" Wade hoped she had seen some kind of way out, but no such luck. Some of the students had settled down enough that they were starting to get restless. One group of boys had started roughhousing and daring each other to touch the glowing orb. Kim knew that this could only end in disaster.

As one of the boys accepted the dare and moved towards the phoenix, Kim, too, began to move. She flipped over the table, leapt towards the DJ's booth, jumped off one of the speakers to grab hold of the banner hanging above. She swung on the banner like it was a rope and sent herself flying out over the phoenix and down to the floor in front of the daring young man.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." She warned, her eyes flashing dangerously as the boy stopped. He appeared to consider if she would be able to stop him or not, but the phoenix seemed to react to either Kim's movements or her nearness. It shivered and shook, causing decorations to crash down from the ceiling and the students to once again huddle back against the walls. Kim looked down to discover that she still clutched the Kimmunicator in her hand. She raised it up.

"Any exits, Wade?" he shook his head, and she frowned. Another quake rippled through the building and one of the younger girls who had come as a senior's date began to cry. Kim rolled her eyes and that's when she spotted it. One of the windows had broken out during one of the tremors. Her eyes darted around the room, searching for some way to get the students up to it and out.

"Wade! Can you get hold of the fire department?"

"Um, I think they're already..." she cut him off.

"Well make sure, and tell them we need ladders and nets. I'm going to get everyone out through the window." He nodded and set about the task.

"Brick!" Kim called out, getting the football player's attention. He came over, a confused light in his eye. "I need you to get the football team together and push the tables and sound equipment over to that wall." She pointed. "Build it up to make a kind of staircase so everyone can get out, ok? The fire department should be sending ladders and nets and stuff to get people down outside." He nodded and ran off to get his team.

"Kim, they're on their way." Kim nodded, but Wade felt the need to continue. "Um, Kim, are you sure you know what you're doing? I mean, everyone needs to get out, but shouldn't you be getting the Kirrnan device?" Kim shook her head grimly.

"Rufus already left. He could squeeze through a hole in the wall. I forgot. Get in touch with my family, let them know he's on his way, and tell them the device is on my dresser. Hopefully they can meet him halfway and save some time." Wade turned to comply and the picture went dark. Kim heard the wailing of the fire engines' sirens and took a deep breath.

"So far so good." She muttered. The phoenix hadn't done anything too drastic yet, and she hoped it would stay that way. All she could do was wait. The seconds seemed to stretch on into minutes and the minutes into years. Finally the boys had the exit rigged and the fire fighters had arrived with the equipment needed on the other side. Students began climbing out as fast as they could, with the teachers trying to maintain a certain amount of order.

"Kim," Wade reappeared, "I just talked to your mom. She said that your dad took the device to meet Rufus. You should have it within a few minutes." She smiled her thanks and stepped back against the wall. Half of the students had made it out so far, and no one had gotten seriously hurt yet. She closed her eyes to gather her nerves. The touch of a hand on her shoulder nearly made her scream, but it was just Monique.

"Kim, you coming?" she looked worried. Kim smiled at her reassuringly.

"No. I have to stop this thing. You go, though." When Monique seemed like she would object she added, "I won't be able to concentrate if I'm worried about bystanders." Her friend took the hint, and, with one last look over her shoulder, she made her way over to the makeshift stairway.

"Kim!" she glanced down at a tug on her skirt and dropped to her knees.

"Rufus! Thank goodness." He held up the device proudly. "You rock, Rufus."

"Awww." He acted modest, then grinned. Kim laughed at his antics, but picked up the device and took a deep breath.

"You sure you want to stick around? I'm not sure what's going to happen when I destroy this thing." she warned. Rufus nodded vigorously. Kim checked to make sure everyone had escaped the gym, then swallowed convulsively. Was this going to work? She steadied her shaking hands and raised the device to aim at the phoenix. She pressed down carefully on the blue button, waiting as the device worked to find all the different components.

"Here goes nothing..." she muttered as the light indicated it was ready to fire. She reached out a trembling finger and placed it on the fuchsia button. "Ready?" She looked down at Rufus. He gulped and grabbed onto her leg.

"One..." he closed his eyes and buried his face in her shin.

"Two..." the ground trembled again, making her struggle to keep her aim.

"Three!" a beam of light shot out of the device in her hand, catching the phoenix squarely in the center. The light given off by the phoenix intensified and a shrill whistle split the air. Kim dropped the device and covered her ears. The noise was growing, building into what sounded like, and may very well have been, a tortured scream. The building shook violently, pieces of the ceiling beginning to collapse. Kim crawled under a table, dragging Rufus with her.

"EEEEEEEEEEEE!" the noise climaxed as the phoenix seemed to be ripped apart at the seams. The explosion sent out a light so bright it temporarily blinded Kim, and any onlookers outside would have surely thought it was some kind of nuclear attack. Suddenly everything went dark. The noise stopped, leaving a silence more deafening than the sound had been.

"Rufus?" Kim whispered, feeling around blindly for the little rodent. "You ok?"

"Mm-hmm." He replied in a shaky voice, grabbing onto her hand. Kim rubbed her eyes trying to regain her sight. As her vision returned, she saw that the gym was completely destroyed. But the phoenix was gone.

"We...we...I think we did it!" Kim murmured exitedly. She raised the Kimmunicator, only to discover that the blast had somehow fried the equipment. "Oh, well." She gave a nervous laugh. Rufus cocked his head, then began to giggle as well. This set Kim off harder, and soon they were both rolling around on the floor laughing in relief.

"OH!" Kim gasped for breath, still chuckling. "Rufus that was..." she broke off suddenly, her gaze caught by something in the middle of the room. Rufus twisted around to see what she was looking at, and froze. There, in the middle of the room, a tiny glow was growing.

"It...it didn't work?" Kim whispered, devastated. Yet something was different about this light. It wasn't a perfect orb, nor the same eerie color. It grew and grew until it was about the size of Mr. Barkin, and then began to fade again, but not all at once. It was as if a hole was growing within the light. A hole that was taking a strange form...

Rufus sat up straighter, his gaze sharpened, intent on the strange behavior of the light. Kim felt the blood draining from her face as the shadow took on a more definite structure. Rufus gave a little cry and leapt from Kim's hands. The light was almost completely faded now, and the figure had solidified. And, for possibly the first time in her life, Kim Possible fainted.

* * *

When one has been trapped in an alternate dimension, without a real sense of time or knowledge of the goings-on of one's own universe, it may be expected that one would feel disoriented upon reentering one's own continuum. Such, strangely, can not be said of Ron Stoppable. Having spent the better part of a month and a half in a type of limbo composed of little more than bright light, he was oddly relaxed not a bit confused to find himself standing in the destroyed remnants of his high school gymnasium.

Well, no more confused or disoriented than is normal for him, anyway. He glanced around and wondered vaguely what had happened, but was distracted from this line of thought by a familiar squeal and the sight of his best buddy racing towards him in a pink blur.

"Rufus!!" They came together in a reunion deserving of long-lost brothers, for each had thought the other dead. "You're ok! How...why...what..." he was quite unable to get an intelligent sentence together. For his part, Rufus simply clung to Ron for dear life, rubbing his face against Ron's cheek and chittering nonsense words. It took a few moments, but eventually Ron regained a sense of his surroundings. That was when he realized that there was something wrong with the whole picture.

"KP!" Depositing Rufus in his pocket, Ron hurried over to where his best friend lay unconscious. Having no knowledge of the events leading up to the destruction of the gym, he understandably thought her to be injured in some way, and set out trying to wake her up. He met with only slight success, as she opened her eyes, took one look at him, and passed out all over again.

"Humph. Kim, come ON! Wake up!" he spotted the Kimmunicator, and thought to get Wade's advice, but as he picked it up he realized the battery was fried. "Hmmmm." He turned it over in his hands and was surprised when it flickered to life.

"Kim! Oh good, I thought..." Wade was bust messing with some printouts and hadn't looked up. "...I wasn't going to be able to reach you again. My readings say everything is normal, but...hey! What the...!?" he examined a computer screen that had suddenly come to life. "Kim! You are NOT going to believe this! It's..." he looked up and fell silent, his eyes wide and face pale. "Ron." He finished.

"Hey Wade!" Ron answered cheerfully.

"Ron...Ron!!"

"Uh, yeah...." He wasn't sure why Wade looked as if he'd seen a ghost, but he looked over his shoulder in case there was something behind him causing this strange reaction. There wasn't.

"Ron...I can't belive...you're..." he straightened suddenly. "Where's Kim?"

"She's right here. I don't know what happened, but she's unconscious. I got her to wake up once, but then she passed out again. I think she needs to go to the hospital or some...what?!" he broke off as Wade had started laughing hysterically. Ron considered the option that perhaps he had returned to an alternate universe. One in which everybody was crazy. Wade struggled to get himself under control.

"Ron..." he gasped for air. "do you know how long you've been gone?" Ron shook his head. "Heck, forget gone...Ron, you've been DEAD for over a month!" Ron blinked.

"Uh, no. I don't think so! Hel-lo? I'm right here!" he said indignantly.

"Yeah, but everyone THINKS you died in the battle with the phoenix. We even had a memorial service for you. Your parents were really upset. Well, of course they were, but..." he trailed off, just starting to realize everything that would need to be done to bring Ron "back to life". Ron glanced at Kim, who, though still unconscious, was beginning to stir.

"That's it!" Wade suddenly burst out. "Shioa didn't die! It's been you all this time! You and Shioa trying to get you back into this universe! That explains the earthquakes... Kim's paper!" Ron shrugged, not really understanding any of this. "Ron. You have to go away."

"What?!" Wade shook his head impatiently.

"Not far. Just so Kim can't see you. I'm going to have to explain this to her."

"Why?" Wade But I'm not sure Kim can take seeing you just yet. She's obviously fainted twice because of it. It's a real shock." Ron hesitated, but then Kim moaned and he shrugged.

"Ok." He put down the Kimmunicator and stood. The screen blipped off. "Huh?" He bent down to pick it up and it turned on again.

"Wade, what are you doing?"

"I'm not doing anything...it must be that the Kimmunicator is powering itself off residual energy from your encounter with the phoenix." Ron blinked.

"O-kay..."

"You're going to have to have Rufus tell her. Go over behind the tables." Ron rolled his eyes, but did as Wade instructed. And not a minute too soon, either, as Kim sat up, putting a hand to her head.

"Wha...?" She seemed to recall the situation and sat up straighter, looking around wildly. Rufus scuttled over to her and she reached down to pick him up.

"Ok, that was weird. Oh, Rufus, I'm such an idiot." She sighed to herself, believing it all to have been a dream. A few tears began to escape her eyes and roll down her cheeks. She had been avoiding thinking about Ron for so long, refusing to examine her feelings. And now... now she had thought he was alive, and to wake up and realize it was all a dream, it hurt more than she could admit. Rufus threw a wild, desperate look towards the tables where Ron was hidden, and then grabbed Kim's face in his tiny paws. He didn't know how he was supposed to tell her, so he just looked her in the eye and tried to convey his thoughts to her.

"Ow! Rufus, what...?" he had a kind of desperate look in his eye...desperate and...excited? Kim felt her heart skip a beat, but tried to stomp out the traitorous hope trying to well up inside her. She stood and looked around for her Kimmunicator, feeling the hope gaining the upper hand in the battle within her as she realized it wasn't where she had last seen it. In fact, it was nowhere to be found.

"Rufus..." she said carefully, "where's the Kimmunicator?" He slid down to the ground, jumping up and down in excitement, and motioned for her to follow. She swallowed and took a deep breath. She approached the stacked tables and equipment that had served as the escape route earlier, and couldn't quite keep from trembling. Absurdly, as she surrendered to the hope that... is it possible?... Ron may still be alive, she felt an almost greater fear that, now that she had recognized and admitted her feelings, he may not feel the same.

The light in the gym was dim, and as she neared the tables she began to be able to distinguish the figure of a person. Her breath caught, and her heart started pounding. She stumbled forward a few more steps, and then her courage gave out. What if it wasn't him? What if it was some kind of trick? What if...? The figure stepped forward, concern for her obvious distress written all over that familiar face.

"Kim? You O-..." he never managed to get the question out, as Kim launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and bursting into tears. He returned the hug, but was unsure of what to say.

"Well, if I had known coming back would make you THIS unhappy..." he tried to joke, but broke off as she raised her head and he caught a glimpse of her face. It looked... well, he didn't know how it looked, but he could tell she hadn't appreciated his joke.

"Sorry..." he muttered. Kim just leaned back, studying his face as if trying to memorize it, and he began to feel a little uncomfortable. "Kim..." He quieted, not sure what exactly to say, as she blinked away some more tears. She took a few sobbing breaths and tried to calm herself.

"Ron...I..." she shuddered with the effort to regain some semblance of control. She closed her eyes, gathering her thoughts. When she opened them, he was taken aback by the emotion in them. "I thought you were...I..." she sighed, suddenly seeming to relax and she hugged him tightly again. "I missed you."

The words where whispered, yet they seemed to have been torn from her and held a wealth of emotions Ron couldn't even begin to unravel. She clung to him as if he were a rock, and he felt absurdly pleased by that fact. He had never really felt so...so...NEEDED before. And somewhere in the strange pool of emotions, some of them Kim's that she couldn't quite conceal and he couldn't quite understand, some of them his own, he felt something give way, and it was if he were coming alive for the first time.

"I missed you too." She looked up at him and their eyes met and he finally understood how something so powerful could be born from the ashes.

THE END


End file.
